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Ronnie McGillicuddy
Billy was a detective in Dublin and Tom’s partner. The two of them investigated Fathers Matthews and Byrne for their sexual abuse of children, but they are unsuccessful due to suppression from the police and church. Tom and Billy were close friends, with Billy being Tom’s best man when Tom got married. Billy was killed in the line of duty by two robbers, which deeply saddens Tom since he feels that Billy was one of the most ethical police officers he ever met.
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Billy Drury Character Timeline in Old God’s Time
The timeline below shows where the character Billy Drury appears in Old God’s Time. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...a time with no way for Tom to communicate with her. One of Tom’s colleagues, Billy Drury, suggested that June had the “housewife blues,” but Tom didn’t believe this since June...
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...June. At the time, she was a waitress at the Wimpy café, where Tom and Billy went after trying to solve a murder of a woman left in a graveyard with...
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Chapter 6
...turn to Archbishop McQuaid, who caused some sort of “mess” for Tom and his partner Billy during their work together. Tom then thinks about Billy’s senseless death at the hands of...
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Chapter 7
...Street, where some gardeners are working. The street brings up memories of seeing movies with Billy at the nearby theater. He arrives at the station where Dymphna, the receptionist, greets him...
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Chapter 8
...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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Chapter 11
...likely be arrested soon. Tom asks him if they discovered any DNA from the evidence Billy kept; Fleming says no, but that they did find two blood samples. One was a...
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...and asks Tom straight-out if he killed Matthews. Tom says no, claiming that he and Billy were called out to the scene from Byrne’s 999 call, and this was the first...
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