Ivy Day in the Committee Room

As the first character we meet in this narrative, Old Jack is a portrayal of a hardworking, everyday Irishman. Unlike the other men in the story, Jack does not have the handle “Mr.” attached to his name, making him distinct as a member of the working class, and an uneducated man. Physically, his old face bears the weight of years of labor, and many of his actions throughout the story are done in service to his companions, such as stoking the fire, fetching candlesticks and coal, and opening the beer bottles.

While the other characters discuss being “hard up” and argue politics among themselves, Jack is the only one to discuss a concrete issue that he faces in his day-to-day life. He is a foil to the middle-class characters’ preoccupations. The difficulties Jack has with his son reflect challenges of ordinary life in Ireland in the early 1900s, including the cycle of deprivation and alcohol dependency. Jack’s disapproval of the delivery boy drinking a beer and inability to stop it may represent the political impotence felt by the poorer Irish population at the time in the face of British rule.