Joe Character Analysis

The meekest boy in Gar’s group of friends, Joe is the only one who actually wants to talk about the fact that Gar is about to leave Ballybeg. On the night before Gar’s journey, he, Ned, and Tom come to the O’Donnell household to have one last night together, but nobody except Joe is interested in celebrating Gar. Instead, Ned and Tom—both of whom Joe admires—talk about soccer and women, and every time Joe tries to bring the conversation back around to Gar, they brush him off. Finally, Ned and Tom decide to leave to go drink elsewhere, but Joe stays behind because he doesn’t want Gar to be all alone on his final night in Ireland. Because Gar can sense how badly Joe wants to follow his other two friends, though, he insists that he should leave, too. Joe, for his part, hesitates at first to do this, but then becomes excited about the idea of having a wild night with Ned and Tom, so he jumps up to leave. Before doing so, he gives Gar a heartfelt goodbye in which he inadvertently makes it known that Madge invited the boys to the house, meaning that they wouldn’t even have come to say goodbye if she hadn’t urged them to do so.