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Joe Dillon
Leo is Joe Dillon’s younger brother and one of the two boys from school that the narrator invites on his adventure across Dublin. Leo fights on Joe’s side during the boys’ after-school war games, but the narrator is not particularly impressed with his athletic abilities, describing him as “fat” and “clumsy” and giving him the epithet “Leo the idler.” One day at school, Father Butler singles Leo out during the class’s Latin translation and catches him with one of the magazines about the Wild West. Father Butler confiscates the magazine and chews Leo out in front of the entire class for reading it instead of Roman History, shaming him for reading something beneath him as an “educated” boy and making him cry. After watching Leo punished in front of the whole class, the narrator loses much of his interest in the Wild West. The incident seems to leave Leo with a lasting fear of Father Butler; when the narrator invites him on his adventure to the Pigeon House, he is afraid that Father Butler will catch them. When he doesn’t show up the next morning, the boys go on without him. His absence is the first thing that goes wrong on the journey, and the boys occasionally trash-talk him for abandoning them.
Leo Dillon Quotes in An Encounter
The An Encounter quotes below are all either spoken by Leo Dillon or refer to Leo Dillon. 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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An Encounter Quotes
It was Joe Dillon who introduced the Wild West to us… Every evening after school we met in his back garden and arranged Indian battles. He and his fat young brother Leo, the idler, held the loft of the stable while we tried to carry it by storm; or we fought a pitched battle on the grass. But, however well we fought, we never won siege or battle and all our bouts ended with Joe Dillon’s war dance of victory.
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Everyone’s heart palpitated as Leo Dillon handed up the paper and everyone assumed an innocent face. Father Butler turned over the pages, frowning.
“What is this rubbish?” he said. “The Apache Chief! Is this what you read instead of studying your Roman History? Let me not find any more of this wretched stuff in this college. The man who wrote it, I suppose, was some wretched scribbler that writes these things for a drink. I’m surprised at boys like you, educated, reading such stuff. I could understand it if you were… National School boys. Now, Dillon, I advise you strongly, get at your work or…”
This rebuke during the sober hours of school paled much of the glory of the Wild West for me and the confused puffy face of Leo Dillon awakened one of my consciences.
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With Leo Dillon and a boy named Mahony I planned a day’s miching. Each of us saved up sixpence. We were to meet at ten in the morning on the Canal Bridge…We arranged to go along the Wharf Road until we came to the ships, then to cross in the ferryboat and walk out to see the Pigeon House. Leo Dillon was afraid we might meet Father Butler or someone out of the college; but Mahony asked, very sensibly, what would Father Butler be doing out at the Pigeon House.
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Leo Dillon Character Timeline in An Encounter
The timeline below shows where the character Leo Dillon appears in An Encounter. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
An Encounter
...adventure magazines. After school, the narrator and his friends meet Joe and his younger brother Leo in their backyard to stage “Indian battles.” But no matter how hard they fight against...
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...and his friends made sure to read them in secret when at school. One day, Leo Dillon flubs his Latin translation in class, at which point their teacher, Father Butler, notices...
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...a real adventure. To make an adventure for himself, he plots to skip school with Leo and another boy named Mahony. They plan their cover stories for their school absences and...
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...birds along the way. The narrator notices how often Mahony uses slang. After waiting for Leo for another half hour, Mahony declares that he knew that Leo would chicken out and...
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...but fail because they need a third person to pull it off. Frustrated, they call Leo a “funk” and imagine how many strokes of the pandybat, a reinforced leather strap, he...
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