Father Purdon’s name is an example of a subtle allusion in the story. As Joyce’s contemporary Irish readers would have known, “Purdon” was the name of Dublin’s red-light (or sex worker) district. The allusion becomes even more clear by the fact that a “red light” is aimed toward Father Purdon’s face as he gives his sermon, as seen in the following passage:
[The men] sat well back and gazed formally at the distant speck of red light which was suspended before the high altar […] Father Purdon knelt down, turned towards the red speck of light and, covering his face with his hands, prayed.
While the red light is likely coming from the tabernacle lamp that is present in most Catholic churches, Joyce’s inclusion of the phrase twice in the story is likely intentional, drawing a connection between the red-light district and the red light on Father Purdon’s face.
Joyce is not suggesting, of course, that Father Purdon is a sex worker, but he is encouraging readers to question the priest’s practices. Like sex workers, Joyce is arguing, Father Purdon views his job in a transactional manner—people come to him in order to feel better and, after taking their money (through church donations), he helps them to do so. In other words, though he acts like a moral authority, Father Purdon is actually providing something quite transactional.
When Kernan and his friends are discussing their upcoming Catholic retreat, they begin to discuss other aspects of Catholicism. Eventually, they allude to the historical figure Tom Burke, as seen in the following passage:
—Father Tom Burke, that was the boy!
—O, Father Tom Burke, said Mr Cunningham, that was a born orator. Did you ever hear him, Tom?
—Did I ever hear him! said the invalid, nettled. Rather! I heard him....
—And yet they say he wasn’t much of a theologian, said Mr Cunningham.
—Is that so? said Mr M’Coy.
—O, of course, nothing wrong, you know. Only sometimes, they say, he didn’t preach what was quite orthodox.
Tom Burke was an actual 19th-century Irish Catholic priest who was popular amongst both Catholics and Protestants due to his eloquent sermons. That said, as Cunningham notes in the story, “he didn’t preach what was quite orthodox” and came under scrutiny for delivering sermons that did not align with the theology of the Catholic Church.
It’s likely that Joyce included this allusion to Burke to highlight what he saw as the absurdity of the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. To him, the two faiths were more similar than different, as evidenced by the power of a preacher to bring both communities together. That the men start by lauding Burke and then—later in the conversation—condemning him because he consorted with Protestants shows how arbitrary these divisions are.
