- Kate 'Kit' Mundy: Does Mr. Evans ever wonder how Christina cloths and feeds Michael? Does he ask her? Does Mr. Evans care? Beasts in fields have more concern for their young than that creature has.
- Agnes 'Aggie' Mundy: Do you ever listen to yourself, Kate? You are such a damned righteous bitch! And his name is Gerry. Gerry. Gerry!
- [Storms out of room]
- Kate 'Kit' Mundy: [to Maggie] Don't I know his name is Gerry. What have I been calling him? Saint Patrick?
- Father Jack Mundy: These church bells, will they ever ring for you and Christina?
- Gerry Evans: [is silent]
- Father Jack Mundy: Good. Better to leave her single than to leave her married.
- [Michael's father, Gerry, has returned to visit Christina; they are laughing, talking, embracing]
- Kate Mundy: [from a distance] Will someone please tell me what they have to say to each other!
- Maggie Mundy: That's Michael's father.
- Kate Mundy: A responsibility which has never burdened Mr Evans.
- Kate 'Kit' Mundy: You work hard at your job, you try to keep the home together but suddenly you realize that cracks are formin' everywhere. It's all about to collapse, Maggie. What I'm most worried about is Rose. If I lose my job, if this house is broken up, what'll become of our Rosie?
- [first lines]
- Narration by: When I cast my mind back to that summer of 1936, different kinds of memories offer themselves to me. We got our first wireless set that summer. Well, a sort of a set, and it obsessed us. We called it Lugh, after the old pagan god of the harvest, and his festival was Lughnasa, a time of music and dance. Then my mother's brother, my uncle Jack came home from Africa for the first time in twenty five years. He was the oldest in the family, and the only boy.
- Father Jack Mundy: I think I've come home to die.
- Maggie Mundy: Jesus, don't! We can't afford to bury ya.