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Alec (Alexander) Moore
Jerry Crowe, a working-class villager who lives near the Alec Moore’s family estate in County Wicklow, is pale, short, and slight but physically vigorous. Shortly after befriending Alec, he leaves school at a young age to work for a tenant farmer and help support his family. Jerry’s father, a career soldier, is “quick with the fist” when home but often away with the British Army. Jerry has a vexed relationship both with him and with his mother, who pressures Jerry to join the army so he can send more money home to the family. Like Alec, Jerry is passionate about horses and horse-racing, winning at least one local race as a jockey. But after World War I breaks out, he accedes to his mother’s wishes and joins the British Army. Though he tells Alec that he’s joining for the money before they leave Ireland, he later claims to Alec and their English officer friend Bennett that he joined to learn military techniques he could use in fighting a war of Irish independence against the British sometime in the future. Despite Jerry’s apparent lust for life and plans for the future, he deserts the army to look for his missing-in-action father when his mother sends him a letter asking him to, even though he knows he could be court-martialed and executed. In the end, however, Alec shoots Jerry rather than letting the British—whom Jerry hates on principle—execute him.
Jerry (Jeremiah) Crowe Quotes in How Many Miles to Babylon?
The How Many Miles to Babylon? quotes below are all either spoken by Jerry (Jeremiah) Crowe or refer to Jerry (Jeremiah) Crowe. 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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Pages 1-30 Quotes
Because I am an officer and a gentleman they have given me my notebooks, pen, ink and paper.
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I noticed his feet before his face. In the summer they were bare, dust-grey and with soles obviously as hard and impervious to stones, thorns, damp, as were the soles of my expensive black leather shoes.
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Occasionally they would heave themselves out of the water and follow her up the path, displacing the neatly raked gravel with their ungainly feet. She would turn and wave them away, clapping her hands softly together, to admonish rather than to alarm.
‘The earth is not your element, my loves. Go now. Shooshy, go.’
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‘All I ever seem to do is boring Latin.’
‘Ora pro nobis,’ chanted Jerry.
‘Oh, hardly that. Boring Caesar’s boring Gallic wars. Your Holy Roman stuff would make poor Mr. Bingham faint away.’
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‘They wouldn’t let us be friends.’
‘Why should they care?’
Yet I knew they would care. He was right. My mother’s mouth would purse up with disapproval, her voice rising alarmingly as it sometimes did when she spoke to my father.
‘Why is neither here nor there. Your lot would care. My lot too if it came to it. One’s as bad as the other.’
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‘The Germans are going to fix all those eejits in Europe, the British are going to fix the Germans, and we . . .’ He paused for a moment and fumbled in his top pocket for a cigarette butt.
‘We . . .?’
‘Oh. We are going to fix the British.’
‘Oh, come on now. You dream.’
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The rushes bowed to her as a little rippling wind stirred through them. A thousand thousand pikemen bowing.
‘With your pikes in good repair,
Says the shan van vocht.’
She looked round at me with disbelief.
‘Don’t. You never could sing anyway.’
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‘The responsibilities and limitations of the class into which you are born. They have to be accepted. But then after all, look at the advantages. Once you accept the advantages then the rest follows. Chaos can set in so easily.’
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Pages 70-112 Quotes
‘If you give me the chance I will make soldiers out of you. Men.’
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Pages 112-156 Quotes
‘Catholic?’
‘No.’
‘You never know with the Irish.’
[…]
‘You are not, I hope, tainted with the Irish disease?’
‘What’s that?’
‘Disaffection. Disloyalty.’
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‘It is people like you and Crowe who cannot see the wood from the trees who cause untold damage amongst those who see nothing at all. Those who must be led.’
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‘Remember.’
‘I can remember nothing.’
‘The lake. The swans . . .’
‘Only that their wings sound like gun shots.’
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Jerry (Jeremiah) Crowe Character Timeline in How Many Miles to Babylon?
The timeline below shows where the character Jerry (Jeremiah) Crowe appears in How Many Miles to Babylon?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 1-30
Alec has noticed a local boy, Jerry, around his family’s stables. He is struck by Jerry’s feet, calloused because Jerry rarely wears...
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...Alec creeps down to the lake, finds someone’s clothes on shore, and hides them. Then Jerry, swimming in the lake, shouts at Alec to come join. When Alec says that Jerry...
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Alec and Jerry meet on the sly. Alec brings his pony, which he teaches Jerry to ride. When...
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When Alec suggests that Jerry could get a job in Frederick’s stables, Jerry says that if he worked for Frederick,...
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Jerry starts working for a tenant farmer on Frederick’s property, earning “seven shillings and sixpence” per...
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One cold day, Alec and Jerry are building jumps for the horses when Jerry asks what Alec plans to do with...
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...Alicia asks Alec’s friend’s name. When Alec says “Jeremiah,” she laughs. He amends that to “Jerry,” and she orders him not to see Jerry again.
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...says he won’t. He grudgingly agrees, and she reiterates her order that he not see Jerry anymore. Alec doesn’t reply.
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Alec claims he heard about the war “around,” but Alicia deduces Jerry told him and angrily commands Alec to permanently end the friendship. When Alec says that...
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Pages 30-70
In the spring, Alec attends a local horse race, which Jerry wins riding Queen Maeve. When Alec congratulates Jerry afterward, Jerry at first awkwardly calls Alec...
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...“Good men and true in this house who dwell”) while gathered people dance and drink. Jerry approaches Alec and offers him a bottle. After Alec drinks, Jerry announces that he’s joining...
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As Alec and Jerry keep drinking, Alec tells Jerry he’s joining the army too. He claims he “want[s] to...
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Alec and Jerry talk about the fiddler. When Alec asks whether the man is married, Jerry spits, says...
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Alec and Jerry drink to joining the army together and then dance. When the music stops, Alec falls...
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Jerry laughs and says he’s eager to see “the old fella’s face” when his father encounters...
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Pages 70-112
...an air of superiority about him and demands that he socialize. Outside, Alec runs into Jerry. When he asks how Jerry is doing, Jerry spits. After a little banter, Jerry suggests...
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...Bennett finds horses, Alec goes and asks the NCO overseeing soldiers whether he can borrow Jerry. Alec and Jerry escape beyond the farmhouse gates, where they meet Bennett riding one horse...
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Bennett, Alec, and Jerry ride off the road into the country and gallop up a hill. Bennett reins in...
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Bennett asks if Alec and Jerry are friends. When Alec says they are, Bennett asks how. Alec tells him not to...
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Jerry spots a fox. He, Alec, and Bennett gallop after it. Afterward, they are riding slowly...
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...new oppressors. Alec ducks out of the conversation to bring a flask of rum to Jerry in another trench. Jerry thanks him, mentions the swans on the lake back home, and...
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Glendinning summons Alec to his own dugout, where he asks about Alec and Jerry’s relationship and insists he won’t have officers and soldiers fraternizing lest “impersonal discipline” be undermined....
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When Alec, Bennett, and Jerry go riding, it’s very cold. Alec lends Jerry gloves. Jerry announces a plan to be...
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As Alec, Jerry, and Bennett drink, Bennett asks whether Jerry is a “Home Ruler” too. Jerry spits and...
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Jerry asks whether the others have heard of Patrick Pearse. Praising Pearse’s speeches, he says that...
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Bennett calls Jerry a “fellow revolutionary” and offers Jerry his hand. Jerry, though amused, doesn’t shake it. Then...
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...the trenches in a few hours. Then he asks if the soldiers have any questions. Jerry pipes up, asking to join the horse lines, which aren’t in great shape. Glendinning refuses...
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...Alec hears a man shrieking continuously in pain. As Alec beds down for the night, Jerry finds him and they share some rum in tea. Jerry admits that he considered shooting...
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When Jerry says he’d like to shoot Major Glendinning after this war is over, Alec questions how...
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Pages 112-156
Several days later, Alec is struggling to remove his boots from his “swollen” feet when Jerry comes and does it for him. Once Alec is barefoot, Jerry rubs his feet with...
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After Jerry and the sergeant leave, Alec lies down and imagines Frederick and Alicia. He notes that...
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...a planned return to the front, Alec and Bennett return to their room and find Jerry waiting. Jerry asks whether Glendinning might “give [him] leave” and hands Alec a letter from...
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Alec goes to ask Major Glendinning whether Jerry can have leave. When Glendinning hears that Alec is trying to intervene on Jerry’s behalf,...
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...a miserable stretch at the front, during which many die, Alec realizes he hasn’t seen Jerry for a while. When he asks Bennett about Jerry, Bennett irrelevantly complains about his own...
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A sergeant finds Alec and asks whether he’s seen Jerry. When Alec says no, the sergeant suggests that Jerry deserted from the front trenches. Alec...
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Later, Alec is sleeping when Jerry rouses him. Alec tells Jerry to be quiet, though Jerry hasn’t spoken, and orders him...
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Alec urges Jerry to try to escape, but Jerry refuses, saying that he hurt no one and was...
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When Alec and Jerry wake, they try desperately to decide what to do. At last, Alec suggests that Jerry...
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...having heard the noise, comes in and asks whether everything’s all right. Then he sees Jerry. When he asks Alec what happened, Alec says that Jerry showed up soaking wet and...
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Sometime later, Major Glendinning summons Alec. When Glendinning states that Jerry has “been found,” Alec retorts that Jerry “came back.” Glendinning points out that they’re fighting...
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...higher-ups had. Glendinning dismisses this idea and Alec. When Alec tries to explain more about Jerry, Glendinning refuses to listen, covering his eyes. Contemplating the “strangely appealing” gesture, Alec wonders whether...
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...for more than a week. Alec asks whether there’s anything else, and Glendinning says that Jerry has been sentenced to execution by firing squad the following morning.
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...control their “wasteful emotions.” Alec refuses the order. Glendinning says that Alec’s refusal won’t prevent Jerry’s execution—he suggests that Alec should consider his parents. Alec does. Then Glendinning says that if...
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Alec asks whether there’s any possibility that Jerry might be spared. Major Glendinning says no. Alec says, “Then I . . .” Glendinning...
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Alec asks whether a priest has visited Jerry. Jerry spits. As Jerry lists all the races his and Alec’s horses might have won,...
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