Roseanne Clear McNulty
The main character and protagonist. The story is narrated mostly from her point of view through a journal she is writing, while the other parts are narrated by Dr. Grene. In the present day, she is a very old woman, somewhere around 100, and has spent most of her life in a psychiatric hospital. As a child and young woman, she is described as being very beautiful, with “soft hair like gold”.
She enjoys a close relationship with her father while growing up during a turbulent time in history - the First World War followed closely by the Irish Civil War. She greatly admires and respects her father as he works hard to provide for their family during these times of hardship. When Roseanne is 16, her father is found hanging, which leaves her greatly saddened. The local Catholic priest, Father Gaunt, is keen to have Roseanne marry a much older man as a means of providing for herself and her mother, yet she refuses. The idea of marrying such an older man repulses her and she decides to get a job waitressing instead.
These years are happy for her and she meets her future husband, Tom McNulty. Her marriage is short-lived, but she is happy while it lasts. The ending of her marriage leaves her shunned and isolated. Eventually, she unfairly ends up in the Sligo Mental Hospital, believing that there is something wrong with her because of what Father Gaunt and others tell her.
As an older woman, she nostalgically looks back on her upbringing in Sligo and wonders at times, due to her great age, if her memory has failed her. This marks her as a somewhat unreliable narrator. With Dr. Grene’s help, it becomes fairly evident that most of Father Gaunt’s notes about her were false and her memories are most likely correct.
Dr. William Grene
A head doctor at Roscommon Mental Hospital. His story is the second narrative in the novel, which runs alongside Roseanne’s narrative. He is around 65 years old and has been a psychiatrist at Roscommon for thirty years. Physically, he is described as having a beard and balding crown, though he shaves his beard after the death of his wife. He was born of Irish parents, but raised in England where he came to know his Irish wife Bet. After their marriage, they move to Ireland so that Bet can be close to her family and he conveniently gets his job at Roscommon hospital.
At the beginning of the story, he has taken it upon himself to discover what exact circumstances led Roseanne to be at Roscommon, which she has trouble answering. Simultaneously, he is also grappling with his own troubled marriage. His wife, Bet, has become distant over the years due to their previous infertility problems and Dr. Grene’s brief infidelity, which he greatly regrets. He loves and cares for his wife deeply and when she suddenly dies, he is greatly distraught.
While recovering from his wife’s death, he believes he is being haunted by her and begins to be critical of his own sanity. This helps him in understanding Roseanne’s early difficulties in life and why she might have been misunderstood and wrongly placed in a mental institution. He begins to research Roseanne’s past in earnest and uncovers that he himself is Roseanne’s long lost child that was given up for adoption.
Joe Clear
Roseanne’s father. He grew up in Collooney and became a sailor at a young age, “sailing into every port in Christendom before he was seventeen”. While in England, he meets and marries Cissy, and they settle in Sligo, Ireland. In Sligo, he obtains a job as the superintendent of the Catholic church, despite being a Presbyterian. He is described as being well-liked in their town, which helped him attain the job at a Catholic church when he wasn’t even of that religion.
Roseanne describes him as being neat and fastidious, saying he was the “cleanest man in all the Christian world, in all Sligo anyhow”, and takes his job very seriously. He is kind and loves his wife and daughter, trying hard to provide them with everything they could want, despite being relatively poor.
When he loses his job at the cemetery, he takes the only job on offer, town rat-catcher, and works hard to excel at it, despite its lowly status. He tries to do the right thing in terms of humanity, rather than pick sides in the Irish Civil War. It remains unclear whether he commits suicide, or if there is foul play due to a mix up with the Free State soldiers.
Cissy Clear
Roseanne’s mother from England. Physically, she is described as being the most beautiful woman in Sligo, having a “darkhaired, darkskinned Spanish sort of beauty, with green eyes like American emeralds” and “skin as soft as feathers”.
She was a chambermaid in a sailor’s boarding house in Southampton. There, she met Roseanne’s father Joe during his time as a sailor and they were married and came to live in Ireland. Over the years, the family lives in near-poverty and Cissy sinks slowly into depression. After the death of her husband, Cissy begins to deteriorate mentally and is mostly confined to her room and Roseanne takes a job to support them both. Roseanne loses track of what happens to her mother after her own misfortunate marriage but is told that she was sent to live at Sligo Mental Hospital where she eventually died sometime in the 1940s.
Tom McNulty
Roseanne’s husband. He was raised in a Catholic family in Sligo, that seem to have been wealthier than Roseanne’s upbringing. When Roseanne is perceived to have a minor indiscretion, Jack is immediately shielded by his family and separated from her. He does not appear to be able to go against his family’s wishes and allows his domineering mother to take control of his personal life.
Eventually, he remarries to a Catholic girl, most likely someone more of his mother’s choosing, after his marriage with Roseanne is annulled. It is revealed later that he truly loved Roseanne, but did not have the maturity or capability of fighting for their marriage against his family’s wishes. He never listened to her side of the story and thus, abandoned her, choosing to believe that he was the betrayed party.
Jack McNulty
Roseanne’s brother-in-law. Physically, he is described as having auburn hair with “severe features, very serious about the eyes.” Roseanne describes him as “gorgeous” and compares him to handsome actors such as Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. He plays in a band with his brother Tom and father, Tom Sr. at the local dancehall.
Eneas McNulty
Roseanne’s brother-in-law and father of her child. She only came to know Eneas after her marriage was annulled. He was a soldier and not around when she was a proper part of the McNulty family.
Tom McNulty Sr.
Roseanne’s father-in-law. Roseanne is unsure if he was ever her enemy or friend, but it seems he most likely had a part in having her committed to the mental hospital in Sligo. He was the tailor for the Sligo Mental Hospital and played in a band with his sons Jack and Tom.
Mrs. McNulty
Roseanne’s mother-in-law. A very strict and discerning Catholic woman, she never accepts Roseanne as a proper match for her son, since Roseanne is poor and Presbyterian. Mrs. McNulty is a seamstress at the Sligo Mental Hospital where she works alongside her husband. She appears to have a dominating effect on the men in her family and plays a large part in arranging the annulment of Tom and Roseanne’s marriage.
She is cruel and opts not to help Roseanne shows up in the middle of a severe storm, heavily pregnant and asking for help. Instead of helping her former daughter-in-law, Mrs. McNulty turns her away and later, arranges to have her baby taken to an orphanage in England, far away.
John Lavelle
A friend of Roseanne’s who ends up playing a pivotal role in her downfall. They first meet when his brother Willie is shot and killed by Irish soldiers. Having had this experience together, they develop a closeness and when he turns up in town after her father’s death, Roseanne is drawn to a meeting with him. Though she was only innocently talking with him about his life, she is presumed to have had an affair with him and this sets in motion Father Gaunt’s ousting of her from society.
John Kane
He was born with the name Sean Lavelle and is the son of John Lavelle. When he was only an infant, his mother was carrying him and his twin brothers in her arms when she was shot carelessly by soldiers. His brother was also shot and killed and Sean was dropped on his head. His father described him as being “not right in the head” after his fall and it seems he was left developmentally delayed. His father always spoke kindly of Roseanne and told him to seek her out if anything were to ever happen to him. After his father’s death, he seeks out Roseanne and becomes a caretaker at the Roscommon hospital, making sure to look out for her. Physically, he is described as being a “little man but at the same time he is all brawn and braces”.
Father Gaunt
The Catholic priest in Sligo who is the main antagonist for Roseanne. He is physically described as a “little perky darting man”, and quite young still when Roseanne was growing up. He played the part of both friend and enemy to her at various stages of her life. When Roseanne was young, she sees him as a benefactor, enabling her father to have a comfortable job at the cemetery. After her father’s death, Father Gaunt appears to pressure Roseanne into a marriage of convenience, as well as trying to manipulate her into becoming Catholic.
After reading Father Gaunt’s notes, Dr. Grene describes him as having an old-fashioned type of morality, in which he seemed to have a hatred of women’s sexuality. Father Gaunt wrongly accuses Roseanne of having had an affair with John Lavelle and betraying her husband. He thinks of her as morally weak and therefore, mentally unstable. He, along with Tom McNulty’s parents, appear to be the ones who had her committed to the mental hospital in Sligo.
Joe Brady
A Catholic man who replaces Roseanne’s father as superintendent of the cemetery. Father Gaunt suggests Joe Brady to Roseanne as a husband, despite being 35 years older than her. When she refuses, Joe Brady is angry with her and almost sexually assaults her before being stopped by John Lavelle.
