The Priest as Sacred Figure: Reflections on Violence, Religion, and the Holy in Twentieth-Century Ireland

A world of love and violence: Ireland sacred and profane

In John McGahern’s evocative Memoir, the author describes his tender childhood relationship with his adored and ailing mother. Both McGahern and his mother live in the shadow of his domineering and secretive father. The sensitive boy is aware of his mother’s visits to the hospital, which are the occasion of harsh and unpleasant treatments. The rural community McGahern describes is impoverished, and social relations are frequently boorish and uncouth. The Memoir describes a society overshadowed by the menace of casual violence, a violence which is alien to the tenderness of McGahern’s childhood bond with his mother.