New Ross

Small Things Like These takes place in 1985 in the small Irish town of New Ross. The town is quaint, quiet, and largely middle-class. Bill Furlong works as the timber and coal merchant in New Ross; foreign seamen often spend several days in the town while making deliveries to Furlong. In the novella, New Ross—and Ireland as a whole—is going through a period of economic and political turbulence. Many factories and businesses have laid off their employees or even closed entirely. Throughout the novella, Furlong often comments on the relative impoverishment of the town.

The Convent

The convent in New Ross sits on a hill above town. It is large, imposing, and coldly elegant. St. Margaret’s, a girls’ school, is directly beside the convent. Furlong makes coal deliveries to the convent at several points in the novella. During one visit, he finds Sarah Redmond—a...