Top Highlights

• tells Frank that he should become an altar boy soon (Malachy Sr. himself was once an altar boy)
• Frank begins to notice that everyone in Limerick has a policy of “not talking to someone else,” as there are so many rivalries and family feuds. Many of the people in town don’t talk to Malachy Sr. because he’s from Northern Ireland.
• He stops by Margaret’s home one afternoon, and points out that Margaret would have to take down a statue of the Virgin Mary if he were to live there—he adds that he is a Protestant. Margaret is at first reluctant to do so, but after Bill explains that his wife—a Catholic—hung Virgin Mary statues everywhere, she gives in.
• Based on the last few chapters, it seems that Margaret is harsher to lapsed Catholics or poor Catholics (like Frank, supposedly) than she is to outright non-Catholics like Bill.
• Frank’s success in taking a part-time job makes it even more pathetic that his father couldn’t do the same

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