Dundalk

Dundalk is a southern border town encountered on Cushla’s train journey, its brief appearance connecting an individual departure to the wider flight of families from the north.

A Stop on the Journey South

A mother and her young son get off the train at Dundalk while Cushla is travelling south. The boy has been eating biscuits from a packet in their bag; when he takes them, his mother gives him a good-natured smack on the hand and takes the packet away. The small, ordinary exchange gives the stop a domestic intimacy, even as the journey carries a larger burden.

A Border Town Receiving Those Fleeing North

Cushla has read in the paper that border towns down south are filling with families fleeing the north. Dundalk’s place in that movement is conveyed indirectly: the mother and boy leave the train there, while Cushla’s remembered news gives their departure a broader context. The town therefore serves as a point of passage between the north and the south, where a single family’s journey sits within a growing displacement.