Tom Kernan's drunken fall down the stairs is the public crisis that exposes the private pattern of his drinking and declining circumstances, and sets in motion his friends' plan to bring him back into the Catholic Church. The fall is followed by practical rescue, a return to his family, and an orchestrated retreat; but the account also makes the limits of that intervention visible, as Kernan resists at least one of its prescribed gestures and is unaware that his friends have arranged it.

Causes and Background

The immediate circumstances are presented through the bar's aftermath rather than a fully narrated lead-up: Kernan has fallen down the stairs and lies helpless at their foot. A curate recalls serving him a small rum, while the customers and manager try to establish who he is and whether anyone came with him. Later, once he is home, Mrs Kernan tells Mr Power that her husband has been drinking since Friday. That retrospective detail makes the fall more than an isolated mishap: it belongs to an extended bout of drinking that has already strained his family life.

Kernan's fall also occurs against a longer history of social decline. He was once a successful commercial figure, and some friends who knew him at his height still value his character; Mr Power's social rise, by contrast, has crossed the path of Kernan's decline. Kernan's inexplicable debts are familiar to his circle. The accident therefore brings a vulnerable man into public view, while the story's background suggests that his difficulties predate this single night.

The Fall and Rescue

Two gentlemen from the lavatory try to lift Kernan and turn him over. The scene draws a ring of onlookers, which opens and closes as people look on; the manager, alarmed by Kernan's appearance, sends for a policeman. When the constable arrives, he begins asking for Kernan's name and address, treating the incident as something that must be recorded as well as managed. The crowd's presence turns a private loss of control into a public spectacle, even as its members do not know who the injured man is.

A young man in a cycling suit then makes his way through the bystanders, kneels beside Kernan, and calls for water. The constable helps him. The young man washes the blood from Kernan's mouth and calls for brandy; after the drink is given, Kernan opens his eyes, understands that he is surrounded, and tries to get up. His effort to stand comes before he is ready to leave safely, but the shock and developing pain have partly sobered him. The episode thus shifts from helplessness toward enough awareness for him to be moved, without resolving the drinking problem that led to the fall.

Identification and Return Home

After leaving the bar, the three men go out into Grafton Street, and Mr Power summons a car. Kernan thanks the young man, hopes they will meet again, and gives his name as Kernan. The brief exchange identifies him to the person who helped him and marks a change in his condition: he can speak and express gratitude, though only as well as he can. At the bar, the manager and constable inspect the stairs and agree that Kernan must have missed his footing; a curate removes the traces of the incident from the floor as customers return to the counter.

The car takes Kernan to a small house on the Glasnevin road. His wife puts him to bed, while Mr Power stays downstairs with the children. The children, aware that their father is helpless and their mother is absent, play with Mr Power; he is surprised by their manners and accents. When Mrs Kernan enters, she rebukes the situation and identifies the prolonged drinking behind it. Her account is direct, but her later conduct also shows the established pattern of care surrounding Kernan: she sends word to his office, tends him with beef-tea, scolds him, and tries to make him eat breakfast.

From Accident to Religious Intervention

Two nights later, Kernan's friends visit him in his bedroom. He sits propped against pillows, apologises for the state of the room, and looks at his guests with the pride of a veteran. He does not know that Mr Cunningham, Mr M'Coy, and Mr Power have already discussed a plan with Mrs Kernan. Mr Power originated the idea, and its development was entrusted to Mr Cunningham. Their intervention responds not only to the recent accident but also to Kernan's long estrangement from Catholic practice: he came from a Protestant family, converted at the time of his marriage, had not been observant for twenty years, and was fond of making barbed remarks about Catholicism.

The friends' plan culminates in a retreat at the Jesuit Church in Gardiner Street. The church is almost full of well-dressed men seated in an orderly assembly, and the formal setting contrasts with the disorder of the bar and Kernan's bedroom. Mr Cunningham points out familiar civic and commercial figures in the congregation; as Kernan recognises faces, he begins to feel more at home. The retreat is therefore arranged as both religious instruction and a social encounter, using his friends' knowledge of his temperament and the people whose presence may make the occasion more acceptable to him.

The plan also includes a concrete ritual demand. Mr Cunningham says that the men need only stand with lighted candles and renew their baptismal vows. Kernan asks whether he must have a candle, and then repeatedly refuses the candle, calling that part of the arrangement off. The resistance complicates any simple account of the fall as leading to repentance: his friends have brought him to the retreat, but his participation remains selective, and their scheme is not the same as an unforced conversion.

Narrative Significance

The fall functions as a turning point in the action because it makes Kernan's drinking impossible for his friends to treat as merely private. At the bar, strangers and officials respond to his helplessness; at home, Mrs Kernan names the duration of the drinking; soon afterward, his friends turn concern into a religious plan. The sequence connects bodily vulnerability, family care, friendship, and Catholic observance without showing that the accident itself has cured or transformed him.

The story sets the hurried practical response to the fall beside the measured formality of the retreat. Kernan is first identified by strangers, helped to his feet, and carried home; later he is seated among acquaintances in a church, where familiar faces and ritual expectations are meant to draw him back into a community. Yet his ignorance of the plan and his refusal of the candle preserve an element of irony: his friends manage the occasion around him, while the decisive meaning of his participation remains uncertain. The accident creates an opportunity for intervention, not proof of lasting change.