Davey

Davey is a loyal member of Cormac MacKay’s small opposition to Mickey MacFarland. He joins Cormac’s effort to restore the family’s direction, but is killed while searching for Scarlet O’Bannon, turning the struggle against Mickey into a direct threat to Cormac’s remaining allies.

Role in Cormac’s Opposition

During Cormac’s effort to challenge Mickey, Davey is one of three men—alongside Sebastian and Flint—who agree to stay with him. The three are described as men without wives or children, and as both loyal to Cormac and eager to push Mickey aside so the family can be put back on what they consider the right track. Their small number underscores how limited Cormac’s support is at this point.

Search for Scarlet

After Max Smithson’s mob funeral, Davey and Sebastian go to Scarlet O’Bannon’s apartment to look for her. They wait together in a car, listening to a game on the radio and talking while they keep watch. The search places Davey among the people trying to find Scarlet as Cormac worries about her safety, but the wait ends in an attack rather than a reunion.

Death and Its Consequences

As Sebastian later recounts it, Mickey appears suddenly, shatters the car’s windows, and kills Davey. Sebastian survives and returns to Cormac with blood on his clothes and the news of Davey’s death. Mickey also uses the attack to send Cormac an ultimatum: the men will die unless Cormac accepts him as Don. Davey’s death is therefore both a loss to Cormac’s already small circle and a means by which Mickey tries to force Cormac’s submission.

Significance

Davey’s brief but consequential role connects Cormac’s attempt to rebuild the family with the personal danger posed by Mickey’s rule. His loyalty is established through his decision to remain with Cormac and his participation in the search for Scarlet; his death demonstrates the cost of opposing Mickey. When Cormac later decides to pretend to accept Mickey’s authority as part of a plan to reach Scarlet, the crisis is no longer only about control of the family: Mickey has made the survival of Cormac’s allies part of the bargain.