At Swim-Two-Birds

John Furriskey tries to make sense of his existence. He feels hungry, though he has never eaten before. A strange, steam-like supernatural cloud seeps into the hotel room and begins to talk to him.

The student loses the part of the manuscript that describes the conversation between Furriskey and the voice emanating from the mysterious cloud. However, instead of remembering the lost passage of the manuscript, he remembers when he found Brinsley in a billiard hall and read him the passage in question. Brinsley compliments the passage, in which the voice told Furriskey that he had been created as a womanizer and a reprobate. The voice tells Furriskey that he must dedicate himself to this “mission of debauchery” (37). The cloud fades away, and Furriskey exits the hotel room. He finds Paul Shanahan and Antony Lamont, “men of his own social class who were destined to become his close friends” (38). The men are also fictional characters, and they explain their situation to Furriskey. Shanahan tells a story about meeting his own creator, the recently deceased William Tracy, and playing his role in the competing stories of the writers who use him in their novels. The characters from these Western novels steal horses and engage in gunfights throughout the city of Dublin.

In March, the student remains in his room “as much as possible” (43) while his uncle is distracted by a newfound interest in music and theatre. Because the student never rereads any of his writing, he worries about losing his papers and his progress. Checking through his most recent work, he discovers missing pages and realizes that the work possesses “a general feebleness of the literary style” (44). He decides to abandon what he has written and instead include a journalistic summary of the events. In this summary, he describes how Dermot Trellis creates the Pooka Fergus MacPhellimey, John Furriskey, a domestic servant named Peggy, Finn Mac Cool, and Paul Shanahan. Trellis tells Furriskey to “attack women and behave at all times in an indecent manner” (44). Furriskey must go to Donnybrook to meet and betray Peggy, who tells Furriskey that Trellis has fallen asleep. While Trellis is asleep, Peggy is assaulted by Finn Mac Cool, whom Trellis has hired to play the role of Peggy’s father. She has also been assaulted by Shanahan, whom Trellis similarly hired to play a role in the stories. Peggy explains to Furriskey that Trellis loses all his authorial powers while he sleeps, which is how Finn and Shanahan were able to assault her. During their conversation, Furriskey and Peggy fall in love. They plan a future together and plot to feign obedience to Trellis until they can escape. Meanwhile, Trellis creates a “beautiful and refined” (44) woman named Sheila Lamont, whose brother Antony is already part of the story. In Trellis’s mind, Antony will confront Furriskey for sullying Sheila’s pristine reputation. However, Trellis is overcome by Sheila’s beauty and attempts to assault her himself. Furriskey returns to the Red Swan Hotel, where Trellis lives with all his characters, and plans to tell Trellis that he has been behaving exactly as the author instructed.

The summary over, the student returns to the prose of his story. Furriskey returns to the hotel, where he finds Shanahan and Lamont waiting for him while Trellis sleeps in the bed. As the characters discuss Trellis; Finn Mac Cool interrupts them, telling a story about “Sweeny’s frenzy” (47). In the story, the ancient Irish King Sweeny is cursed by a priest after an outburst of violence. He wanders Ireland, rests in trees, and laments his cursed isolation. During his travels, he visits the church at Swim-Two-Birds (Snámh-Dá-Éan in Irish, referring to an ancient ford on the River Shannon). At the church, Sweeny recites a poem. Sweeny travels Ireland for seven years until he’s found by his friend Linchehaun, who reveals that Sweeny’s family members have died. Linchehaun captures the despondent Sweeny and takes him away. Sweeny gets into a leaping competition with an old “mill-hag” and then sits in a tree and sings a poem dedicated to the plants of Ireland.

Shanahan interrupts Finn’s story, much to Finn’s annoyance. Shanahan talks about Jem Casey, a “poet of the people” (56), who wrote poems while laboring. Furriskey nods along as Shanahan compliments Casey’s working-class, honest approach to work and poetry. Shanahan prefers Casey’s poems to Ireland’s traditional folk poems, as told by Finn, though he does appreciate “the real old stuff of the native land” (58). Furriskey and Lamont encourage Shanahan to recite one of Casey’s poems. Shanahan recites Workman’s Friend by Jem Casey, which is “about a drink of porter” (59). A pint of beer, the poem suggests, is the only trustworthy constant in life. Furriskey and Lamont are both impressed. They wake up the sleeping Finn to ask his opinion; Finn launches back into another poem about nature. The others agree to listen to what he has to say as Finn continues “with a patient weariness” (62). Shanahan interrupts to share a verse he has composed in his head that combines Finn’s appreciation of nature with Casey’s appreciation of beer. Furriskey and Lamont are both impressed and shake Shanahan’s hand. Finn continues Sweeny’s story. Sweeny continues to travel across Ireland, singing verses about his sorrowful existence. He travels to Britain and befriends a man named Fer Caille, until Fer Caille must go to the place where he will die. Sweeny returns to Ireland. He begins to grow feathers on his body because of the priest’s curse and laments his wandering life.