A Mother Summary

In Dublin, Ireland, around the turn of the 20th century, Mr Holohan, the assistant secretary of the Eire Abu Society, has been trying to get a series of concerts arranged for months. But, ultimately, a woman named Mrs Kearney ends up taking care of nearly everything for him. Mrs Kearney is a wealthy, educated Irishwoman who has always been uniquely stubborn. Rather than marry for love, she married the much older Mr Kearney, a stoic, pious boot manufacturer with a large brown beard, for the lavish lifestyle he could give her. Their daughter, Kathleen Kearney, receives a top-notch education like her mother. However, unlike Mrs Kearney, Kathleen has the opportunity to attend the Royal Irish Academy of Music to refine her piano-playing ability. When the Irish Revival (a renaissance of Irish art, music, and culture) becomes popular, Mrs Kearney gets Kathleen involved in the Nationalist movement, and Kathleen gains considerable fame as a pianist in Dublin.

Mr Holohan asks Mrs Kearney if Kathleen would be the accompanist for the four-night concert series his Society will be hosting, and she gives him food and wine and works up a contract with him so that Kathleen will receive eight guineas for her performance. From then on, Mrs Kearney takes over, advising Mr Holohan on how to plan the concerts and manage the “artistes” that will be performing, all the while keeping him supplied with plenty of wine.

Mrs Kearney spends a considerable amount of time and money getting the concerts ready and preparing Kathleen’s dress. But on the night of the first concert, she immediately senses that something is wrong. For all the preparation she did, very few people show up to the first concert. When she meets the secretary of the Society, Mr Fitzpatrick, a man with a brown hat and a “flat” Dublin accent, he doesn’t seem too disappointed, and his casual approach to the concert series irritates her. Mr Holohan admits that the Committee made a mistake in planning four concerts since four was apparently too many, and they had decided to just save all the best talent for the last concert.

The next concert is better attended, but Mrs Kearney can tell that the rowdy audience is mostly made up of people admitted for free. Mr Fitzpatrick talks loudly throughout the performances and, over the course of the evening, Mrs Kearney learns that the third concert will be canceled. She goes looking for Mr Holohan and insists that despite the cancellation, Kathleen should still get her eight guineas. But he tells her to talk to Mr Fitzpatrick, and Fitzpatrick, too, seems unable to guarantee anything. Before the last concert, Mrs Kearney explains the situation to her husband, who decides to go with her to the last show.

Unluckily, the last concert takes place on a rainy night. When Mrs Kearney can’t find Mr Fitzpatrick or Mr Holohan before the concert to ask them about Kathleen’s payment, she talks to Miss Beirne, a Committee member who is not particularly helpful and fairly resigned to the concert being a failure. The “artistes,” including Mr Duggan, Mr Bell, Miss Healy, and Madam Glynn, all arrive and awkwardly mingle as Mrs Kearney continues her search for Holohan and Fitzpatrick. Meanwhile, Mr Hendrick, a reporter from the Freeman, a daily Irish Nationalist newspaper, stands talking with Miss Healy, who appears to have a crush on him. Although Hendrick is supposed to report on the concert, he doesn’t actually like music and tells Mr Holohan that Mr O’Madden Burke will write the report instead. However, when Mr Holohan invites Hendrick to have a drink before he leaves, they find Mr O’Madden Burke drinking in a room far from where the concert will take place.

Meanwhile, Mrs Kearney has an intense conversation with her husband. Although it is time for the concert to start, Kathleen isn’t signaling the first performer, Mr Bell, to get ready. As the Kearneys debate something among themselves, the performers—especially Mr Bell—grow increasingly tense. Mr Holohan enters the room and Mrs Kearney tells him that Kathleen won’t perform until she gets her eight guineas. Kathleen stays silent as her mother and Mr Holohan argue, and Mr Holohan leaves the room. The performers talk awkwardly until Mr Holohan comes back with Mr Fitzpatrick, who gives Mrs Kearney some money and tells her that she’ll get the other half during intermission. Mrs Kearney tells him that he’s four shillings short of four guineas, but Kathleen tells Mr Bell to get started anyway.

Backstage, the performers gossip about who is in the right: the Committee or Mrs Kearney. The Committee members think Mrs Kearney has treated them badly, and Mrs Kearney thinks the Committee has treated her badly—and wouldn’t have treated her that way if she were a man. At intermission, the Committee decides not to pay Mrs Kearney anything, and when she and Mr Holohan have their final argument, she mocks him to his face in front of everyone. In doing so, she turns everyone against her and her family, and the Committee decides to replace Kathleen for the remainder of the concert. With their family reputation and Kathleen’s music career in ruins, the Kearneys leave the concert and O’Madden Burke assures Mr Holohan that he did the right thing.