Slattery

Slattery is a parish priest with unusual access to the classrooms and corridors of St Dallan’s School, where he uses catechism and confession to assert authority over children. His influence is not confined to religious instruction: through a sectarian story directed at Davy McGeown and a punishing First Confession, he makes religious practice a means of instilling fear. Cushla Lavery’s dislike of him also has a personal source: when her father was delirious in hospital, Slattery prayed with him and persuaded him to write a cheque for a colour television.

Identity and Institutional Authority

The school stands on parish land shared with the church and parochial house. Slattery moves freely between these institutions, entering classrooms without warning to deliver catechism. Cushla has complained to Bradley that these visits unsettle the pupils, but Bradley dismisses her concern on the grounds that Slattery is the priest. The exchange shows how clerical status protects Slattery’s access even when a teacher objects to its effect on the children.

Cushla’s distrust is also shaped by what happened during her father’s hospital stay. He was delirious with morphine when Slattery prayed with him and then persuaded him to write a cheque for a television. The episode gives her objection a concrete personal history: she has seen Slattery’s religious standing operate in a moment when her father was vulnerable.

Catechesis and Sectarian Fear

When Slattery encounters Davy and Jonathan after their fight, he labels them bad boys and tests the class on prayers, including the Confiteor and the Mysteries of the Rosary. The children do not respond. He recites the mysteries himself, presenting the devotional language in a manner Cushla understands as frightening rather than comforting.

Slattery then addresses Davy, who is seven, with a story about a young girl subjected to sectarian violence. When Davy asks whether the girl was seven, Slattery dismisses the question as irrelevant and turns the account into a general claim that Protestants hate Catholics. He then singles Davy out by asking whether he is one of the McGeowns. The movement from a story of violence to a claim about an entire religious community, followed by the identification of a child through his family name, makes the lesson an act of intimidation as much as instruction.

First Confession and Discipline

As the children prepare for Communion, Slattery leads hymns including Suffer Little Children, Lord of the Dance, and Faith of Our Fathers. The differing associations attached to the songs expose the divided meanings within the ceremony: some parents hear the first hymn in relation to children suffering through the Troubles, while Slattery’s own preference for the last is linked to its references to torture and death.

Slattery also intervenes in Cushla’s preparation for First Confession. She has told the children that they are too young to have serious sins and suggested they invent minor faults. He instead teaches them about original sin, Adam and Eve, remorse, guilt, and sorrow, and announces that he will show no leniency when they confess. He makes penance publicly legible by telling them that the length of time they kneel in the pew will show others how sinful they are. Before leaving, he gives the children pictures of Padre Pio and speaks about the saint’s wounds.

As he passes Davy a picture, Slattery bends to whisper something to him. Cushla rushes over, but Slattery is already walking away; the content of what he said is not disclosed. The next day, Davy is the first child to confess and is left kneeling for a prolonged penance while the others come and go. Cushla considers appealing to Bradley but remains silent, remembering Bradley’s earlier retaliation against the McGeowns. Tommy McGeown eventually pulls Davy from the pew and challenges Slattery and Bradley, saying the treatment is not right. Davy then runs to Cushla and tells her he did nothing really bad. The scene shows the cost of Slattery’s disciplinary authority, while keeping the precise connection between his private whisper and Davy’s penance unresolved.

Character and Narrative Significance

Slattery’s actions bring together two kinds of authority: the formal practices of Catholic instruction and the fear generated by sectarian conflict. In the classroom, he uses a story of violence to turn communal identity into a warning directed at a child; in confession, he makes a religious rite a public measure of guilt. His presence is reinforced by institutional deference: Bradley does not prevent his unscheduled visits, and later stands with him when Tommy intervenes on Davy’s behalf.

The novel also places Slattery’s authority beside forms of religious practice that carry more intimate meanings. Cushla buys Davy a missal, rosary beads, and a novena card associated with her grandmother’s prayers for people in trouble. Those objects are gifts she chooses for him, but at the Communion ceremony she sees them through the pressure surrounding the children’s religious observance and feels that the gifts now seem threatening. Slattery is not shown handling those purchases; their contrast instead clarifies the difference between religion as personal care and the fear-laden discipline he imposes.