Summary

Chapter 2 focuses on Jimmy Phelan, Maureen’s illegitimate son. The narrator describes Jimmy as a talented and hardened criminal: “He’d sold fags and dope and cans of lager, and then heroin and women and munitions. He’d won over and killed cops and robbers both” (13). Despite his criminal success, Jimmy was “kept raw and weeping for want of a family tree,” and so tracked down Maureen in London and brought her home to Cork, setting her up to live in a former brothel he used to own.

Jimmy is less shocked than exasperated that Maureen just killed a man (13). Murder is not new to Jimmy—the choice of murder weapon, a Holy Stone “religious souvenir,” and the fact that someone dared to intrude on his property captures more of his attention (15).

Maureen refuses to stay in the house, so Jimmy...