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Chapter 7
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 is in Fleming’s office along with Wilson and O’Casey. Tom admits that he didn’t read the case files, but Fleming tells him he knows most of it already: it’s regarding the investigation of abusive priests that Tom and Billy pursued in the seventies, which Wilson and O’Casey are now undertaking. During Tom’s investigation, it was much more difficult to scrutinize priests due to their exalted reputations; now, it’s gotten easier, but the detectives are still receiving pushback from the assistant commissioner, who is uncomfortable with the investigation. However, Fleming feels that the priests deserve to be brought to justice.
Tom’s real meeting with Fleming finally lays out the explicit facts of Wilson and O’Casey’s case: that it was originally Tom and Billy’s case, the same one hampered by the archbishop. The fact that Tom faced significant roadblocks in his investigation highlights how impenetrable the institution of the church was, which allowed it to cover up its myriad abuses for many decades. The new investigation suggests that this status quo is gradually degrading.
Themes
Fleming asks Tom about his involvement with the case. Tom explains that Fathers Byrne and Matthews lived together in a parish, and Scotland Yard got a tipoff about Byrne that led to the discovery of child pornography. Tom and Billy wanted to interrogate Byrne, but then-chief Garvey caved after talking to the chief commissioner and gave all of the evidence to Archbishop McQuaid, who did away with it. Tom and Billy were furious, but their hands were tied. Fleming tells Tom that Byrne has built a swimming pool, which draws children to him. He asks Tom what advice he would give to Wilson and O’Casey, and Tom advises them to collect all their evidence before bringing it to higher-ups. He then expresses his fury that Byrne is able to continue hurting children and wishes Wilson and O’Casey luck in taking him down.
The full story of the archbishop’s involvement indicts not just the church, but the police department, whose chief at the time was just as complicit in covering up the abuse as the archbishop was. Fleming’s revelation that Byrne has built a swimming pool for children highlights the very real cost of this subterfuge, which is that he’s been able to continue abusing children. Thus, in covering up the abuse, the archbishop and former chief have directly abetted the severe abuse of children.
Themes
Fleming then asks Tom about the other priest, Matthews, who has since died. Tom says he doesn’t remember much, but Fleming reminds him that he and Billy were the investigating officers on Matthews’s murder—a fact that Tom, much to his unease, had completely forgotten until now. It all comes back to Tom: Matthews was found in the mountains, where he'd been stabbed multiple times and thrown down the ravine. Tom had felt guilt over investigating it since Matthews was the same priest who abused June. Fleming tells Tom they’re going to review the case files and confesses to having Wilson take Tom’s toothbrush for a DNA sample. Tom leaves, but first asks Fleming if the station ever had a Detective Scally. Fleming says yes, but that she was killed earlier in the year.
Although Tom’s unreliable memory has left the exact circumstances of the cold case in ambiguity for the first seven chapters of the novel, the review of the case here reveals many crucial plot points, the primary one being that Thaddeus Matthews, the priest that raped June, was murdered. This fact of course gives Tom a motive for the murder, and Wilson’s covert taking of Tom’s toothbrush suggests that the detectives view him as a suspect—but Tom’s addled mind leaves the truth of the matter unclear for now.
Themes
At home, Tom eats dinner. He finds himself conflicted about his time at the station earlier. It was difficult, but it also instilled a strange pride in him, which he feels has been “scribed on his heart with a tattooing needle.” He looks out the window to the sea, where his neighbor’s boy and a little girl—whom Tom assumes is the boy’s sister—are running and dancing on the concrete jetty. To Tom’s horror, the girl suddenly pushes the boy into the ocean. Tom runs out to the jetty and considers jumping in to save the boy, but he can’t see anyone. The boy makes him think of Joseph, then Winnie, whose last bedtime story before she grew too old for it was Treasure Island. Tom runs back into the castle and heads upstairs.
Although Tom’s conversation at the station has complicated his role in the case, the feeling he has upon getting home suggests that his love of returning to the detective world supersedes any practical concerns regarding his status as a suspect in the case. He once again looks out to the sea for comfort, but the disturbing moment he happens to see is another instance of ghostly foreboding, with both the girl and boy vanishing as soon as Tom runs out to help.
Themes
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