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Mr Fitzpatrick
Mr Kearney is a wealthy bootmaker, Mrs Kearney’s husband, and Kathleen Kearney’s father. Mrs Kearney marries him for financial security rather than love, and although they respect one another, their relationship is mostly pragmatic and transactional. He is a pious, frugal, churchgoing man, and his brown beard connects him to the dullness and sense of stagnation that Joyce saw in turn-of-the-20th-century Dublin. He is a good husband and father, giving his daughters a good education and paying for Kathleen to continue her music education. When Mrs Kearney gets Kathleen involved in the Irish Nationalist movement for the social advantages, he goes along with it. But despite his reputation and sober-minded demeanor, he is little help when Mrs Kearney brings him along to the Irish Nationalist concert series to help her negotiate Kathleen’s pay with the Eire Abu Society, and he placidly follows her when she gets angry at Mr Holohan and forces her family to leave the concert early.
Mr Kearney Quotes in A Mother
The A Mother quotes below are all either spoken by Mr Kearney or refer to Mr Kearney. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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A Mother Quotes
He sent the elder daughter, Kathleen, to a good convent, where she learned French and music and afterwards paid her fees at the Academy. Every year in the month of July Mrs Kearney found occasion to say to some friend:
“My good man is packing us off to Skerries for a few weeks.”
If it was not Skerries it was Howth or Greystones.
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When the Irish Revival began to be appreciable Mrs Kearney determined to take advantage of her daughter's name and brought an Irish teacher to the house […] On special Sundays when Mr Kearney went with his family to the pro-cathedral a little crowd of people would assemble after mass at the corner of Cathedral Street. They were all friends of the Kearneys - musical friends or Nationalist friends and, when they had played every little counter of gossip, they shook hands with one another all together, laughing at the crossing of so many hands and said good-bye to one another in Irish.
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He listened carefully and said that perhaps it would be better if he went with her on Saturday night. She agreed. She respected her husband in the same way as she respected the General Post Office, as something large, secure and fixed; and though she knew the small number of his talents she appreciated his abstract value as a male.
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Mr Holohan became very red and excited. He spoke volubly, but Mrs Kearney said curtly at intervals:
“She won't go on. She must get her eight guineas.”
Mr Holohan pointed desperately towards the hall where the audience was clapping and stamping. He appealed to Mr Kearney and to Kathleen. But Mr Kearney continued to stroke his beard and Kathleen looked down moving the point of her new shoe: it was not her fault. Mrs Kearney repeated:
“She won't go on without her money.”
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Mr Kearney Character Timeline in A Mother
The timeline below shows where the character Mr Kearney appears in A Mother. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
A Mother
...bit old to still be unmarried, people started to gossip about her, so she married Mr Kearney , a boot manufacturer, “out of spite.”
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Mr Kearney is significantly older than Mrs Kearney, and he’s very serious. While Mrs Kearney has come...
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The Kearneys are very attuned to one another’s needs and Mr Kearney is a good father, putting money into accounts for his two daughters to ensure that...
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...Kathleen, and have her learn to speak and write to her friends in Irish. When Mr Kearney and his family attend Sunday mass at the pro-Cathedral, a temporary cathedral in Dublin, people...
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...The advertising somewhat reassures Mrs Kearney, but she still tells her husband about her worries. Mr Kearney listens to her and says that he thinks it would be better if he went...
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On the night of the Saturday concert, Mrs Kearney, Mr Kearney , and Kathleen arrive together 45 minutes before the beginning of the show. Unluckily, it...
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...from backstage. The seats are quickly filling up. Backtracking, she has a private conversation with Mr Kearney , which appears to be about Kathleen since they both keep looking at her while...
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Back in the dressing-room, Mrs Kearney speaks so intensely to Mr Kearney that he asks her to lower her voice, and although Mr Bell is ready to...
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In a different backstage corner, Mrs Kearney, Mr Kearney , and a small crowd all gossip about how the Committee has treated her after...
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...Mrs Kearney’s behavior and sides with the Committee’s choice. As she argues with Kathleen and Mr Kearney , waiting for the secretaries to talk to her again, Mrs Healy agrees to play...
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Mr Kearney exits and Mrs Kearney escorts Kathleen out. On her way out the door, Mrs Kearney...
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