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“Every evening after school we met in his back garden and arranged Indian battles. He and his fat young brother Leo, the idler, held the loft of the stable while we tried to carry it by storm; or we fought a pitched battle on the grass. But, however well we fought, we never won siege or battle and all our bouts ended with Joe Dillon’s war dance of victory.”
Every day after school, the neighborhood boys meet in Joe Dillon’s back garden in order to enact mock “cowboys and Indians” battles. The game draws parallels between the people of Dublin and the Indigenous people of North America—both groups were subjected to oppressive colonization at the hands of a powerful nation (the British Empire and various white settlers, respectively). Furthermore, the narrator’s observation that Joe’s team, the group representing the Indigenous people, always wins represents the Irish people and their desire to ultimately liberate themselves from British rule.
“I’m surprised at boys like you, educated, reading such stuff. I could understand it if you were ... National School boys.”
Father Butler disdainfully delivers this line after he caught Leo Dillon reading “The Apache Chief” in The Halfpenny Marvel on school grounds. He chastises Leo and says that he is displaying the behavior of a National School boy. He is speaking derogatorily of National Schools because they are associated with Great Britain, a subtle reference to the story’s anti-colonization themes.
