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Chapter 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Old God’s Time, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory
Grief and Ghosts
Abuse of Institutional Power
Personal Trauma vs. Collective Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Tom cooks Welsh rabbit for the two detectives; while he does so, he looks at the grime on the grill and thinks of how his daughter Winnie would chastise him for it. Wilson and O’Casey eat the meal with cursory praise, as Tom has never been a good cook. He looks at the cheese on the Welsh rabbit and thinks back to when he went out to the National Gallery, where he admired a small Pissarro painting of a landscape. He tried to remember what the yellow of the wheat reminded him of, then he realized it reminded him of individual cheese slices. Afterwards, he went to the Natural History Museum where he admired the skeletons of animals, particularly that of a blue whale, which hung above him and made him feel like Jonah.
Tom’s mind wanders a great deal even during the mundane task of cooking the Welsh rabbit. Here, the yellow of the cheese triggers the memory of a yellow Pissarro painting he saw at a museum, which in turn causes him to think of skeletons of animals at a natural history museum. The comparison between Tom and Jonah is significant since, in the Bible, the prophet Jonah was punished for disobeying God’s orders—suggesting that Tom might feel as though he deserves punishment as well.
Themes
Shortly after eating the Welsh rabbit, O’Casey becomes ill and has to retreat to the bathroom for half an hour. Wilson laughs at his misfortune, which causes Tom to admire the easy friendship between the two to the point that he almost cries. He gives O’Casey some medicine to help his stomach, and the man eventually comes out. A storm has come in and Tom feels obligated to accommodate the men, so he brings out an air mattress, which he usually uses when Winnie visits. However, the only other place he has for the men to sleep is a small couch. Feeling inadequate as a host, he sets out the bedding for the mattress without a word and hurriedly goes to bed.
Although Wilson and O’Casey came to Tom on official police business, their visit ultimately takes on a more personal feel. In particular, Tom takes on a paternal role with the two men, such as when he helps O’Casey through his embarrassing bout of illness and tries to set up some bedding for them. These gestures once again highlight Tom’s kind nature—but despite his generosity, he feels that he’s inadequately cared for the men.
Themes
When Tom wakes up the next morning, Wilson and O’Casey are gone. Tom realizes they’ve taken the case file with them and feels profound shame for refusing to help them. He’s also surprised to discover that he misses them deeply despite their brief interaction, and he wonders if he should spend more time with other people. For the rest of the day, he attempts to put them out of his mind, but he can’t keep his mind off of the detectives’ reports. He suspects that he would have risen to the occasion of reading them, much like one of the metal angel statues on O’Connell Street in Dublin. Thinking of this street, Tom also thinks of Nelson’s Pillar, a statue on the street that was blown up by a republican activist in 1966.
Although Tom feels like a failure for refusing the case, it’s notable that he does not feel shame as a detective; rather, he feels as though he’s personally failed Wilson and O’Casey, whom he’s quickly come to care for. Despite his former isolation, then, Tom finds himself quickly becoming emotionally attached to other people. Once again, Tom’s rumination on present events brings him back to memories of the past: this time, of a bombing during the Troubles, the low-level civil war Northern Ireland suffered in the late twentieth century.
Themes
Unable to get his mind off the detectives, Tom heads outside. He’s briefly caught in the rain, but it clears after some time. The heat reminds him of summer, when he ran two errands: he got a haircut and then bought swim trunks. The barber used shears similar to those for a sheep and left him with an extremely unflattering haircut. Afterwards, when he went for swim trunks, the woman assumed he was homeless and offered him secondhand yellow trunks that he found ugly but took anyway. Thinking of the barber now, Tom recalls a memory of a Brother struggling to shave sheep and yelling in triumph when his task was done. Tom thinks happily that although summer is far away, the warmth of the sun is a reminder that it will come.
The first chapter established that Tom rarely leaves his flat, but here, he ventures out and looks forward to summer, suggesting that Wilson and O’Casey’s visit has motivated him in some way to once again interact with the outside world. Even so, he still finds himself retreating to the past. The memory of the Brother shaving sheep is vague and without context, but provides a hint that, at some point, Tom spent time living among priests—a significant fact, given his initial response to the case.
Themes
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The wind picks up and throws rain in Tom’s face, prompting a sudden mood swing into despair. He thinks of the talented people around him in Dalkey and about how he, too, was once accomplished as a detective, but he still rejected Wilson and O’Casey. He cries and aborts his plan to go to the park, heading home instead. He wishes Winnie was there—but then reminds himself that Winnie, along with Joseph and his wife June, are dead, and he chastises himself for denying this. He ties a noose but cannot find a place to support his weight. Looking out the window, he sees his neighbor’s son dancing in the rain with a cane, happy to be in the cold. Furious, Tom begins to bang on the Formica kitchen table, but stops himself out of respect for Mr. Tomelty’s property. As he stands over the table, the doorbell rings.
Tom’s sudden mood swing into a suicidal rage reveals that his past few months of peace have been a veneer: in reality, he carries deep trauma and pain within him. At least some of this pain’s source is revealed with the twist that, despite Winnie’s “visits” to his house, she, as well as Tom’s wife June and his son Joseph, are all dead. His neighbor’s son, who is able to dance happily outside despite the miserable weather, further enrages Tom; unlike the child, he is incapable of joyfully persevering.
Themes
