What is the importance of the Lavery's pub in the novel, Trespasses?

The pub owned by the Laverys is an important setting throughout the novel because it brings the Irish and English worlds together, leading to interactions both rewarding and difficult. The Laverys are haunted by the perception that their family are, effectively, fence-sitters, refusing to take a side in the national conflict; this perception is fueled by the fact that their bar is a popular place for English soldiers and sympathizers to have a beer. Sometimes, the interactions that result from this lead to humiliation or trouble, as in the case of the man Cushla calls "the groper," or even in the case of her doomed and difficult romance with Michael. But in other cases, the relationships the Laverys manage to form with English sympathizers actually lead to a kind of fragile community outreach beyond the typical divisions of Catholic and Protestant; one of their patrons, Fidel, often supplies Cushla's schoolchildren with discounted treats from his store, and even when the pub is eventually bombed, the Laverys are given an unusually early warning. Thus, the bar functions as a kind of microcosm of the world outside of it, a space in which individuals from either side of the national conflict can interact with impunity.