One of the most interesting aspects of Dancing in Lughnasa is Kate’s continual insistence in a more traditional Christian way, coupled with her belief that all decent people—especially her family—should agree with her beliefs and live the way she told them to, despite being surrounded by “pagans” and “savages.”

And they’re savages! I know those people from the back hills! I’ve taught them! Savages—that’s what they are! And what pagan practices they have are no concern of ours—none whatever! It’s a sorry day to hear talk like that in a Christian home, a Catholic home! All I can say is that I’m shocked and disappointed to hear you repeating rubbish like that, Rose!

Set against Kate’s obsession with maintaining a “Catholic home” is Jack’s equal and opposite obsession with the rituals and beliefs in Ryanga, a leper colony in Uganda, where he has spent the past 25 years. Though Kate continually attempts to enforce her own ideals, Jack frequently monologues about his life at Ryanga, and also often mistakes his sisters for Okawa, his Ryangan house boy. Kate also struggles with her sisters’ interest in the “pagan” practices of the hill people, and later shouts down their suggestion that they all dance in the Festival of Lughnasa. Yet despite her best efforts, savagery continues to flourish; if anything, the narrative seems to suggest that there is room for other beliefs, whatever Kate might say. Though her family mostly obeys her, eventually they defy her: Jack by dying while still holding onto his thoughts of Ryanga, Agnes and Rose by leaving the family for a less rigid lifestyle. Ultimately the message seems to be that belief can’t be suppressed, and the more you suppress a belief the more strongly it expresses itself in spite of you. This is a message, unfortunately, that seems to have been lost on Kate.