Old God’s Time: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Tom Kettle is a retired detective who enjoys his golden years in the seaside town of Dalkey, Ireland. He recently moved into a flat rented from Mr. Tomelty, a wealthy landlord who spends much of his time gardening. Tom enjoys the quiet and solitude of his new home, spending most of his time reading books and looking out over the sea. He has two neighbors. one recreationally shoots seabirds that gather on the coastal rocks, and the other is a young mother and her child. Tom does not go out or receive visitors often, aside from his daughter Winnie; his son, Joe, who works in New Mexico, cannot visit. Despite Tom’s isolation, however, an unexpected knock comes at his door one February afternoon.

Tom answers the door to two younger detectives from his old division. Their faces immediately bring Tom back to his days of policing against his will. Tom is unhappy to see them and fears they bring bad news, but he reluctantly invites them in nonetheless. They introduce themselves as Detectives Wilson and O’Casey. He makes them tea, becoming somewhat self-conscious of the unkempt state of his flat as he does so. As the detectives make small talk and wait for the tea to be ready, Tom cannot help but look out at the sea and think of the various fish lurking within it.

Once the tea is ready, Tom sits down to talk with the detectives. They tell him that their chief, Detective Superintendent Fleming, told them that Tom would be willing to help them with an investigation. Tom unhappily recalls making this promise on his last day of work, a choice he chalks up to sleep deprivation. Tom asks after the chief, and the detectives respond that “you can’t kill them.” Tom takes this as a reference to the chief being beaten up by two delinquents, who were in turn badly beaten at the station for their crimes. As Tom thinks of how to continue the conversation, a bright white gull kills itself by flying into the side of his house. Tom is the only one to see it, but the other two men notice that he’s startled; Tom can tell Wilson, seeing his anxiety, is trying to decide how to recalibrate the conversation.

Wilson makes small talk about Dalkey, which inadvertently leads to him disclosing that he lost his mother as a child. It was especially difficult on his younger sister, who was only five at the time. Although Wilson tries to brush the experience off, Tom can see the sorrow in his face. Tom gets up to turn on a lamp, which conjures memories of how his young son used to play with the lamp’s switch. He thinks of his own wife and wonders how Wilson’s sister is doing now, then wonders why he even cares. Wilson mentions that his mother was a great beauty, which leads Tom to examine him closely, thinking of how he used to try to garner information from suspects’ stray remarks. Wilson tries to move the conversation forward, but Tom awkwardly discloses the death of his and his wife’s mothers.

Wilson turns the conversation to the reason for their visit, producing a case file and holding it out to Tom, who does not immediately take it. Wilson confesses he’s embarrassed to show the file to Tom, since it’s “dirty business.” O’Casey says he’s not sure if the “dirty business” was even a crime in Tom’s day. When Tom asks for elaboration, O’Casey alludes to priests, which instantly causes Tom to recoil and refuse to take the case. He recalls suffering and says that “there was no one to help me,” when he meant to say, “there was no one to help them.” Horrified by what he’s said, he listens to the wind outside and thinks of his neighbor murdering the birds that he loves so much. He abruptly offers to make the detectives a meal of Welsh rabbit (a meal of bread and cheese, containing no actual rabbit).