Stout delivery boy Character Analysis

The 17-year-old delivery boy arrives with a case of stout (a type of beer) for the men in the Committee Room. The boy symbolically represents Ireland’s youth, so when Old Jack (who has just railed against the dangers of youth alcoholism) hands the boy a drink, it’s an example of Ireland’s older generation willfully corrupting the young. Richard Tierney, the conspicuously absent Nationalist candidate, has sent drinks with the boy in lieu of the wages he owes to his workers. Ironically, in his brief appearance the boy stands in as Tierney’s ambassador to his workers. That Tierney has sent a 17-year-old instead of showing up himself illustrates how mismanaged the Nationalist party has become. Furthermore, that the boy asks for the men’s empty bottles before they have even been drunk shows how stingy Tierney is, a quality that does not bode well for a Poor Law Guardian.