Jimmy Doyle’s father Character Analysis

Jimmy Doyle’s father is a wealthy Irish businessman who acquired his money by managing a chain of butcher shops that are now established across Dublin. Although he had been an Irish nationalist as a youth (an advocator for Irish Home Rule), the story makes clear that he “modified his views”—and implies that he sold out on his political beliefs‚ and on Irish self-determination, in order to achieve financial success. That success is also built on his choice to enter into police contracts, which practically speaking means he sells meat to the jails and barracks, but has the broader significance of meaning that he makes his money by working in concert with the English authorities who rule Ireland. With his money, he sent Jimmy to a college in England, followed by Dublin university and then a semester in Cambridge. Although he pretends to appear angry at his son’s sometimes frivolous expenses, he is actually proud of his son’s spending. He encourages his son’s connection with Charles Ségouin, as he believes there is lots of money to be made in the motoring business and he is proud of his son’s continental associations. Along with Jimmy, he represents the Irish upper class, and how it has abandoned the needs of Ireland in pursuing its own wealth, and yet is likely to suffer failure as it pursues opportunity and stature among the wealthier, more worldly continental Europeans.