Flaherty 1

Katherine Flaherty

Professor J. Jeffers

ENG 335 – Northern Irish Literature

22 February 2019

Judgement and Morality in Patrick MacGill’s Children of the Dead End

Growing up can be full of contradiction and confusion. In Children of the Dead End,

author Patrick MacGill follows the maturation of Glenmornan native, Dermod Flynn. At an

extremely young age, Dermod’s parents elect to send him into the world to find work and

contribute to the rearing of his family by sending his earnings home for their use. Along the way,

Dermod finds friendship in a navvy, Moleskin Joe, while living and working his way through

Northern Ireland and Scotland at the turn of the nineteenth century. He falls in love with Nora

Ryan, a girl from home, and embarks on a journey to find her, eventually doing so in Glasgow.

One might examine this text and draw the conclusion that MacGill purposely blurs the line

between Dermod Flynn’s social and sexual tendencies; In his journey from boyhood to manhood,

the only tangible relationship Dermod seems to maintain is the one he has with Moleskin Joe,

while the only relationship he pines for is the one that could be with Nora Ryan. Through

examination of the scene from Chapter XXV of Patrick MacGill’s Children of the Dead End, in

which Dermod feels his sleeping bunkmate’s bare muscles, the author shows the importance of

the fact that Dermod does not have a firm grasp on what is and is not socially acceptable

behavior; this is essential in understanding Dermod’s journey to enlightenment because it allows

the reader to see the error in Dermod’s harsh judgement of other characters, such as Gourock

Ellen.
 Flaherty 2

From Chapter XXV:

“Presently, wedged in between the naked bodies of Moleskin Joe and Hell-fire Gahey, I

endeavoured to test the strength of the latter's arms by pressing them with my fingers. The man

was asleep, if snoring was to be taken as a sign, and presently I was running my hand over his

body, testing the muscles of his arms, shoulders, and chest. He was covered with hair, more like

a brute than a human; long, curling, matted hair, that was rough as fine wire when the hand came

in contact with it. The rubber-like pliability of the man's long arms impressed me, and assured

me that he would be a quick hitter when he started fighting.” (384).

In this passage, Dermod is naked and has gone to sleep three abreast with Moleskin Joe

and Hell-fire Gahey. He sleeps between the two men--who also sleep naked, as all of the navvies

do at this time--presumably because he is the youngest at 19-years-old. Gahey is asleep and

Dermod, who aspires to be a great fighter, is interested in the strength of his bunkmate. He is

young and “has not had his first shave”, so a difference he naturally notices between himself and

Gahey is the copious amount of hair his upper body is covered with. While this may be a graphic

characterization of the man’s naked body, it can be argued that the hair itself actually separates

Gahey from true nakedness and therefore, from any sexual connotations that come with

Dermod’s touching him. Similarly, earlier in Strabane, Gourock Ellen shows her knees to the

other workers. Initially, Flynn thinks he is “doing something wrong in gazing at the bare leg of a

woman”, as he associates a woman’s bare leg with overt sexuality (160). He is quickly able to

separate nakedness and sexuality in this situation, which he expresses on page 167: “...the hard,

black, bleeding and scabby knees that Gourock Ellen showed to us at the fire had turned my

young visions into nightmares”. This is a physical trait which separates Gourock Ellen’s naked

leg from sexual connotation; It transforms the previously held connection Dermod makes
 Flaherty 3

between nakedness and sexuality, into a curiosity--though repulsive to Dermod--which just

happens to occur, here and in the case of Gahey, in the presence of a naked body. Gourock

Ellen’s scabby knees make her more like a nightmare than a sexual fantasy, just as Gahey’s hair

makes him “more like a brute than a human” (384).

Also within this passage, Dermod calls Gahey a “brute”, a title and term he regards with

disgust early on, but at Kinlochleven he seems to admire and the brutish qualities found with

Hell-fire Gahey. Dermod’s definition of brutishness changes through the course of the novel. His

first mention of “brutishness” comes in Chapter XII. At this point in the narrative, Dermod lies

awake in the bed he shares with Mickey’s Jim in Strabane where he has gone to work digging

potatoes for the summer. He is fourteen and until this time, Dermod “had great belief in women,

their purity, virtue, and gentleness”, he continues, “But now my grand dreams of pure

womanhood had collapsed.” (167). After working on the potato squad with women like Gourock

Ellen, the notions of the romantic heart of his youth falter and his naive views on love and

women are shaken. He detests the harshness of poverty and its effect on civility, and as a result

he detests Gourock Ellen for her crudeness and her lack of shame. At this time, he “...looked on

life in all its primordial brutishness and found it loathsome to [his] soul.” (167).

Later, after he has gambled away his earnings, Gourock Ellen offers Dermod half of her

money. Work in the potato fields has come to an end, and he is left homeless and penniless after

squandering his money away on card games. Gourock Ellen suggests that Dermod accompany

her to Glasgow where she will find him “bed and bite” until he finds alternate work (189). Flynn

refuses. He appears to be gracious when she takes her leave, but internally he is glad to be rid of

the brutish woman. At this point, Dermod as the narrator recalls, “The woman's kiss disconcerted

me, and I suddenly felt ashamed of my coldness towards her. She was kind-hearted and
 Flaherty 4

considerate, and I was a brute.” (190). In this moment, Dermod has become what he loathes and

must therefore begin to shift his views on society. On page 247, he recalls: “As time wore on I

became primeval, animalised and brutish.” In some ways he is ashamed of his brutishness, yet he

embraces these fluctuations in character as time passes because he is a firm believer that nature

knows best (412, 419).

The story is told as a personal retrospective, so Dermod is not able to cast aside his

personal prejudice of characters such as Gourock Ellen until he is older. Further, there is a lovely

connection revealed between the woman Dermod reviles as a youth, Gourock Ellen, and the man

he idolizes, Moleskin Joe. As a youth, Dermod does not hold the ones he loves to the same

standard as outsiders. At the end of the story, the candle of his youth is extinguished when Nora

dies, marking his transformation from a boy to a man. At this point, he accepts that each

individual has their own struggles and that kindness is kindness, regardless of the social class of

the person extolling it. Though there seem to be many contradictions in the actions and personal

character of Dermod Flynn over the course of Children of the Dead End, Patrick MacGill shows

the reader that Dermod is able to overcome his former prejudices to become a better person.

These realistic and uncomfortable situations present opportunities for Dermod to shed the rigid

beliefs instilled within him during his childhood at Glenmornan and his youth spent on the roads

as a navvy. Ultimately, the hard upbringing he endures Northern Ireland and the stern world-

view he adopts during childhood see him through difficult times. In the end, his ability to

overcome these contradictions is what softens his heart and allows him to reach adulthood and

enlightenment.
 Flaherty 5

Work Cited

MacGill, Patrick. Children of the Dead End: The Autobiography of an Irish Navvy. New

York: E. P. Dutton & Company. EPUB file.