The Gathering

The Gathering is a contemporary work of Irish literary fiction. Although the novel is universal in its themes, there are layers to the story that are specifically Irish.

Veronica has a difficult relationship with her mother. She resents her mother for having too many children (12 in all, plus seven miscarriages). Having too many children depleted her mother of the energy to be reliable or to give attention to each child. Even as children, Veronica and her siblings know not to tell their mother their problems. They share the expectation “Don’t tell Mammy” (9), worried that any amount of stress will shatter her. In Irish culture, history, and literature, the stereotype of the long-suffering Mammy figure is an important representation of what many women went through in Ireland, especially before the legalization of birth control with the Family Planning Act in 1978. Essentially, Irish women were expected by their community and their Catholic faith to abide by their husbands, bear children, and give themselves to motherhood. The consequence of this attitude is evident in the ways in which Veronica’s mother is unfit to deal with the reality of the world around her.

Another element of The Gathering that is specific to the Irish experience is immigration to England. Because of Ireland’s physical proximity to England and its history of colonialism (England colonized Ireland between 1542 and 1922), a major narrative in Irish identity and history is immigration. Colonization at the hands of England kept Ireland, especially rural Ireland, impoverished. Historically speaking, emigration was the only way for many Irish people to survive. Immigration was so popular during the Great Famine of 1845-1852 that Ireland lost approximately one third of its population to death and immigration. Today there remains a large diaspora of Irish Americans and Irish Brits, as is reflected in the novel. Though Liam isn’t escaping a famine or poverty, he too moves to England in an effort to escape what his life was like in Ireland: the judgment of his family, the trauma of his childhood sexual abuse, his lack of friends and support. Veronica also flies to England to separate herself from her family so she can have the space and time to think on her own. The necessity of separation from Ireland so that Veronica can have her revelation about living implies that Ireland is too marked by history, expectations, and memory for her to think clearly.

The story of St. Ita’s is also an allusion to a troubling time in Ireland’s history. St. Ita’s is a stand-in for the Magdalene Laundries, an organization of Catholic-run state institutions. Mostly women were kept in these institutions, often for mental health conditions, pregnancy out of wedlock, or perceived sexual deviancy. The last of these institutions closed in 1996. In the decades that followed, Ireland discovered the truth of what had happened at these institutions. Mass graves were unearthed after a search was conducted to discover what happened to the many people who went into these institutions and never came out. The mass graves were unmarked in an effort to keep the truth a secret. St. Ita’s mass grave is a direct allusion to the history of the Irish Catholic Church’s efforts to protect their reputation even at the cost of harming individuals.

Similarly, the revelation that Liam was sexually abused as a child by Nugent parallels Ireland’s troubled history with child sexual abuse. Veronica feels shame that she didn’t tell anyone about Liam’s sexual abuse and therefore save him from Nugent. This shame is also a metaphorical collective shame for the country of Ireland, which grappled with serious accusations of abuse of children at the hands of priests for decades. In The Gathering, the shame of a family is a microcosm of the shame of an entire society.