The Sisters

In an example of situational irony, Father Flynn is revered as a respectable and moral religious leader in the community despite the fact that he consistently behaves in indecent (and likely immoral) ways. The irony comes across in moments like the following, when the narrator describes what his educational lessons with the priest were like:

Sometimes he used to put me through the responses of the Mass which he had made me learn by heart; and, as I pattered, he used to smile pensively and nod his head, now and then pushing huge pinches of snuff up each nostril alternately. When he smiled he used to uncover his big discoloured teeth and let his tongue lie upon his lower lip—a habit which had made me feel uneasy in the beginning of our acquaintance before I knew him well.

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Despite his closeness with Father Flynn, the narrator doesn’t grieve over the loss of his teacher, but instead feels “freed” by it—an example of situational irony. The irony comes across in the following passage, as the narrator describes his own surprise at his inability to mourn the man:

I found it strange that neither I nor the day seemed in a mourning mood and I felt even annoyed at discovering in myself a sensation of freedom as if I had been freed from something by his death. I wondered at this for, as my uncle had said the night before, he had taught me a great deal. He had studied in the Irish college in Rome and he had taught me to pronounce Latin properly.

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