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The Dublin Girl
Mrs. Kehoe is a New Ross resident who operates Kehoe’s, the local restaurant where Furlong’s yardmen have supper after a long day’s work. After word spreads of Furlong’s “run-in” with the Mother Superior, Mrs. Kehoe warns Furlong not to make trouble over the Magdalene laundry business, warning him that the nuns control the town and could make things very bad for Furlong and his family.
Mrs. Kehoe Quotes in Small Things Like These
The Small Things Like These quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Kehoe or refer to Mrs. Kehoe. 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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Chapter 7 Quotes
‘Take no offence, Bill,’ she said, touching his sleeve. ‘Tis no business of mine, as I’ve said, but surely you must know these nuns have a finger in every pie.’
He stood back and faced her. ‘Surely they’ve only as much power as we give them, Mrs Kehoe?’
‘I wouldn’t be so sure.’ She paused then and looked at him the way hugely practical women sometimes looked at men, as though they weren’t men at all but foolish boys. More than once, maybe more than several times, Eileen had done the same.
‘Don’t mind me,’ she said, ‘but you’ve worked hard, the same as myself, to get to where you are now. You’ve reared a fine family of girls—and you know there’s nothing only a wall separating that place from St Margaret’s.’
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Mrs. Kehoe Character Timeline in Small Things Like These
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Kehoe appears in Small Things Like These. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...orders. At noon, they wash up and head over to Kehoe’s for hot dinners, where Mrs. Kehoe gladly doles out the meat and vegetables to the grateful, hungry men.
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Chapter 7
...Furlong arrives back at the yard, his men are already eating their meals at Kehoe’s. Mrs. Kehoe sees Furlong and remarks how tired he must be after a long day of deliveries...
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After a pause, Mrs. Kehoe asks if it’s true that Furlong has had a chat with “herself above at the...
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...Hall, he almost trips on a loose stone and has the sudden impulse to blame Mrs. Kehoe . Furlong carries on, looking inside shops for gifts for his family. At Stafford’s shop,...
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