Small Things Like These Key Moments

Comparative · 2027 & 2028 Leaving Cert

The novel moves through seven clear beats across a handful of days in December 1985. Read them in order and you have the evidence for almost any comparative question the exam can ask.

A Childhood Debt: Mrs Wilson’s Kindness

Before the novel’s present, Keegan folds in the story of Furlong’s own start in life. His mother, an unmarried teenage servant, was not turned out by her employer when she fell pregnant. Instead, Mrs Wilson took mother and son into the Big House itself, at an age when Furlong could barely understand what had been done for him.

You’ll be sleeping in this house now William. I’ve had a room made up for you.Mrs. Wilson, Scene 83, the Big House drawing room, after the funeral

The boy’s own uncertainty about his place in the world surfaces almost immediately after.

Do you think my father knows what’s happened?Young Bill Furlong, Scene 83, the Big House drawing room

Use this beat wherever an essay needs the origin of Furlong’s empathy. Everything he later risks for Sarah is repayment of a debt he has been quietly carrying since boyhood.

The First Girl in the Coal Shed

Making a delivery to the convent, Furlong hears a voice from the coal shed and finds a teenage girl locked inside overnight, distressed and pleading to be let out.

Mister won’t you help us?Teenage girl at the convent, Scene 70, the Good Shepherd convent Hall

Her desperation goes further than simply wanting the door opened.

Will you take me to the river? Or get me to the other side of the gateTeenage girl at the convent, Scene 70, the Good Shepherd convent Hall

A nun arrives almost at once to manage the situation, and the convent’s instinct for control shows itself for the first time.

We can’t have people walking in and out whenever they want.Sr. Carmel, Scene 71, the convent coal shed

This is the moment the abuse stops being rumour and becomes something Furlong has personally witnessed. Use it for any question on how the novel makes institutional cruelty undeniable rather than abstract.

The Convent’s Bribe

Furlong is later summoned to Sister Mary’s office, where warmth is performed before it is withdrawn.

So good of you to come early, Bill – come in come in! My God you gave us an awful fright, child!Sr. Mary, Scene 104, the convent

In front of Furlong, the girl he found in the shed is made to recant what happened to her.

It was a big nothing, Mother.Sarah Redmond, Scene 107, Sr. Mary’s office

Then comes the money, folded inside a Christmas card and offered as if it were nothing more than seasonal generosity.

Here’s a little present – am sure Eileen will appreciate it.Sr. Mary, Scene 107, Sr. Mary’s office

Use this scene for Cultural Context or Theme or Issue answers on how institutional power buys silence: performance, coercion and bribery, all in a single office visit.

Eileen Urges Him to Look Away

At home, Furlong tells Eileen what he has seen. Her response is not cruelty but a hardened, practical denial that lets the town keep functioning.

Aren’t they kept warm and fed – and learning a trade? If it wasn’t for the nuns they’d have nowhere to go.Eileen Furlong, Scene 82, Furlong and Eileen’s bedroom

Furlong tries to close the distance between his own family and the girls behind the convent walls.

But what if it was one of ours?Bill Furlong, Scene 82, Furlong and Eileen’s bedroom

Eileen refuses to make that leap.

This is what I’m saying to ya – they are not ours.Eileen Furlong, Scene 82, Furlong and Eileen’s bedroom

This is the clearest statement in the novel of self-interest against empathy, and it is spoken by someone who loves Furlong and fears for their children, not by a villain.

A Warning at the Pub

Mrs Kehoe, fond of Furlong but sharper about the town’s realities, spells out exactly what the convent’s reach means for him.

Them nuns have a finger in every pie, Bill.Mrs. Kehoe, Scene 138, Kehoe’s pub storage room

She names the precise cost of interfering: his daughters’ schooling and his standing in New Ross.

You’ve worked as hard as myself to get to where you are – and you know there’s only a wall separating that place from the school. You make a nuisance of yourself you’ll be denying your younger ones an education – never mind how you’ll look to the rest of the town.Mrs. Kehoe, Scene 138, Kehoe’s pub storage room

Furlong’s private answer to this warning is the closest the novel comes to a thesis statement.

They’ve only as much power as we give them, I thought.Bill Furlong, Scene 138, Kehoe’s pub storage room

Use this beat wherever an essay needs the exact cost of moral courage named in concrete terms, not just felt in the abstract.

Finding Sarah on Christmas Eve

Delivering coal on Christmas Eve, Furlong finds a second girl locked in the shed, disoriented after a night in the cold.

Is it the day or night, Mister?Sarah Redmond, Scene 103B, the convent coal shed

She tells him what awaits her inside the convent walls.

Sister Mary said it will go to a good home.Sarah Redmond, Scene 103B, the convent coal shed

Furlong’s reply is small and almost wordless, but it is the first sign of the light-and-dark imagery the novel has been building toward.

It’s dawn – it’ll be light soon.Bill Furlong, Scene 103B, the convent coal shed

This is the second, decisive echo of the first coal-shed scene. Use it to show how repetition, not a single shocking event, is what finally moves Furlong to act.

Walking Her Home

Instead of walking away, Furlong takes Sarah out of the shed and through the streets of New Ross in full view of anyone watching.

Come on, Sarah.Bill Furlong, Scene 162, the convent coal shed, Christmas Eve night

Sarah can barely believe what is happening to her.

Are you taking me away, Mr. Furlong?Sarah Redmond, Scene 162, the convent coal shed, Christmas Eve night

The novel closes on an uncertain, quietly hopeful note, with the consequences for Furlong’s own family still unresolved.

It’s not long now. We’re almost home.Bill Furlong, Scene 165, Chapel Lane

This is the strongest possible closing evidence for a Paper 2 essay: a two-word decision, a girl’s disbelief that kindness is real, and a walk into a future the novel refuses to guarantee.

Small Things Like These Key Moments: Using This in the Exam

How to use it: do not try to retell the whole plot. Pick three or four of these beats, the first coal shed, the bribe in Sister Mary’s office, and the walk home cover most questions between them, and show what each one proves about power, complicity or courage. Quote a phrase, not a paragraph, and spend your time explaining what the moment demonstrates.

Conclusion

Read in order, these seven moments form a single argument: a man who was once shown an undeserved kindness spends a lifetime absorbing warnings to mind his own business, and finally repeats that kindness himself, at real cost, because he has run out of ways to pretend he hasn’t seen what he has seen. Know the sequence and you can drop into it at any point the exam asks for.