The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty
by Sebastian Barry
List Price: $12.95
Pages: 320
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0140280189
Publisher: Penguin Putnam
In the years between 1916-1922, when southern Ireland was on the verge
of gaining its independence, there were the nationalists—men and
women who fought side by side to gain Ireland's freedom from Britain—and
there were the Crown forces—made up of soldiers, the Royal Irish
Constabulary, and, later, the hated Black and Tans. And there were also
men and women who were ill-prepared or unwilling to live political lives:
people who refused or were unable to take sides and, as a result, were
shunned by their families, communities, and their country. Sebastian Barry's
The Whereabouts of Eneas McNulty is the story of one such man, of good
intentions and their sometimes disastrous effects, and the struggle between
the personal and the political. And it is the story of a man exiled from
a country that bewilders and rejects him, but which he loves nonetheless.
Eneas McNulty is born in the
first year of the twentieth century in County Sligo in the west of Ireland.
The earnest and hard- working McNulty family is caught up in the politics
of their homeland. Eneas' sister, Teasy, prays on her knees for the
Irish nationalist Michael Collins. Even his younger brother Jack—who
will soon wear a British uniform—understands the unwritten code of
politics around him. But in Eneas, Barry has created the ultimate innocent
who becomes overwhelmed, perplexed, and finally accused by his surroundings
and the people that inhabit them. In a world of hard men, he remains a
kind of experienced child. It is this lack of guile that will be his downfall,
but it is also the richness of Eneas's perspective, despite the harsh
reality of the world around him, that will be his redemption.
After a stint with the British
Merchant Navy, Eneas returns to a post-World War I Ireland that is—unbeknownst
to everyone—poised on the brink of civil war. Desperate for work,
Eneas finds there is little to be had and the only job open to him is
as a policeman in the Royal Irish Constabulary: a catastrophic decision
in the political climate of the times, where other men are becoming another
kind of soldier, dark and intent on Irish freedom. Eneas's accidental
proximity to the murderous Black and Tans puts him on the IRA's blacklist
for the rest of his life. Jonno Lynch, Eneas's closest childhood friend
who is now increasingly involved with the local revolutionaries, delivers
the death sentence. When Eneas witnesses his sergeant's murder, he
is abandoned on all sides, simultaneously let go from the police force
and asked by Jonno to assassinate a key member of the Tans called the
Reprisal Man. Refusing to kill a man and therefore giving up his only
chance at getting off the blacklist, Eneas knows he must leave Sligo—and
the people who love him—forever. He works on fishing boats in Northern
England, fights after his own curious fashion in France as a soldier in
the British Army during World War II, and finds his lowest days in Africa
with his Nigerian friend, Harcourt. No matter how far he goes, however,
at the back of his mind there is always the menace of the dark-coated
men who would prefer him dead. Even so, he twice returns to Sligo, unable
to resist the pull of home and the hope that time has erased his death
sentence.
At the age of seventy, he heads
for the last haven of sailors and wanderers, the Isle of Dogs, and opens
a hotel with the self-exiled Harcourt. Northern Ireland's troubles
have just begun, thereby reactivating old blacklists and old men. One
final time, Eneas faces his childhood friend, Jonno Lynch, and the struggles
and conflicts that have unwillingly shaped his flight. And so it is here
that he ends his wanderings, "alone, hated, but human on the raveling
road," neglected by history but redeemed by the tragic beauty of a final
act of selflessness.
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1.Eneas is dogged throughout his life by the collapse of his friendship with Jonno Lynch and the fallout that accompanies it. How does their relationship change throughout the course of the story? In what ways does it remain constant? How does their relationship fit or defy our conventional notions of a hero/villain relationship?
2. Avenue 1 1/2, Galveston's red light district, makes a deep impression on Eneas, despite the brief amount of time he spends there and his apparent rejection of the pleasures it offers. What does the area represent to Eneas, and how does this contribute to our understanding of his character?
3. Eneas and his friend Harcourt are described as "scraps of people both, blown off the road of life by history's hungry breezes." Consider their relationship—what they have in common and how they differ. In what ways do Sligo and Lagos share for them a similar appeal, as well as similarly insurmountable obstacles?
4. Roseanne, Eneas's sister-in-law, is a mysterious character with whom Eneas seems to share a deep but elusive connection. What does she represent in the story, and what does her relationship with Eneas tell us about him?
5. The clothes one wears, and the people who produce them, are important concepts in the book. There are vivid descriptions of men in dark coats; Eneas's father is a tailor by trade; and much is made of the blue suit that Eneas dons late in the story. How does the author's use of the clothing motif contribute to our understanding of the characters, and the changes some of them undergo?
6. The archetypal wanderer, Eneas McNulty has "longitude and latitude written in his bones." He spends an extended period of time in a number of places, but is always driven on again by circumstance. Consider his time spent in Galveston, France, and Lagos. How does each location provide elements of home that Eneas longs for? What does each location lack? In what ways is his home on the Isle of Dogs different from his previous stops, and how is it an appropriate final destination?
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