Summary

Mr. Tierney (Michael) and his son Patrick go to Mr. Tierney's father's funeral, the man who Patrick is named after. This chapter is told from the perspective of the first-person narrator, recounting the tales that their father, Patrick, told them. Mr. Tierney believes that his father hated him and his wife, he did not have a heart and even let his mother die without telling his son (166). Because Mrs. Tierney was an immigrant, Mr. Tierney's father had not approved of her. At the funeral, Mr. Tierney identifies Aunt Rose and Red Whelan, his father's substitute in the war. Red Whelan served in the Union Army so his father did not have to. Mr. Tierney says that he "Saved my old man's skin. Made it possible for me to be born" (170). He calls Patrick "the finest fruit of Red's sacrifice" (171). Aunt Rose is...