The Strand: A Liminal Space in Colm Tóibín's Long Island
What Is the Strand?
The strand is a sandy beach at Cush, a small coastal area near Enniscorthy in County Wexford, Ireland. It lies below the cliffs where Eilis’s brother Martin owns a house. The word “strand” itself is an Irish-English term for a beach, but in the novel it names a specific, almost ritual location. The strand is accessible only by foot down a set of steps from the cliff path, giving it a secluded, guarded quality. It appears in three key episodes: Eilis’s solitary swim, her first reunion with Jim Farrell, and their final intimate walk toward Knocknasillogue. The place is never described with detail—no dunes or landmarks are named—but its emptiness and constant sound of waves create a sensory backdrop for pivotal emotional encounters.
Where the Strand Recurs
Chapter 11, Section 2 – A Solitary Swim
Eilis drives to Cush after an argument with her mother. She buys new furniture for Martin’s house and decides to stay. She swims in the cold sea, then walks back along the strand. It is here, with her hair still wet, that she sees Jim Farrell approaching. This is the first time they have spoken in more than twenty years. The strand becomes the stage for their awkward, charged reunion—a meeting Eilis did not seek but cannot avoid.
Chapter 12, Section 3 – Jim’s Pursuit
Jim has learned from Martin that Eilis is at Cush. He drives there, asks for directions from a local woman, and decides to walk down to the strand rather than knock on her door. He finds her walking back from the water. Their conversation is tense: Eilis deflects his questions about whether she thinks of him, and they part with a handshake. The strand here functions as a place of patient waiting—Jim hopes for a sign; Eilis maintains her distance.
Chapter 21, Section 3 – The Morning After
After spending the night together at Martin’s house, Eilis and Jim walk north along the strand toward Knocknasillogue and Morriscastle. This is their longest and most honest conversation. Eilis tells Jim she has decided to leave Tony because of the baby. Jim refuses to wait for word and insists on moving to New York immediately. They agree on a cover story, and Eilis confirms she loves him. The strand, now a shared space of decision, hosts the moment their future is plotted.
How the Meaning of the Strand Changes
From Refuge to Crossroads
Initially, the strand offers Eilis solitude and a physical challenge. She swims in water so cold she can barely endure it, but afterwards feels a “glow of warmth.” The strand is a boundary—between land and sea, control and surrender, the past she carries and the present she is trying to inhabit alone. When Jim appears, the strand becomes a crossroads where two lives converge. The same empty beach that allowed Eilis to feel free now forces her to confront the man she left behind.
From Past to Future
During the first two meetings, the strand is a place of recollection—they speak of old times, of the summer when Eilis returned from America after Rose’s death. By the third walk, the strand has shifted orientation. Eilis talks about buying a house in Lindenhurst and Jim talks about visas. The strand, rooted in Irish geography, now points toward America. The horizon over the sea becomes a symbol of the unknown future they plan to build together.
From Private to Communal (and Back)
In Chapter 11, the strand is Eilis’s private discovery. By Chapter 21, it is a shared space where she and Jim walk “close to the water” and hide nothing. Yet the strand never becomes public—no other characters appear during these scenes. It remains a liminal zone outside the social world of Enniscorthy, where secrets can be spoken without fear of exposure. In a novel full of surveillance (Nancy watching, Lily Devereux reporting), the strand is the one place that stays silent.
Character and Theme Connections
Eilis Lacey and Independence
Eilis’s decision to swim alone and later to confront Jim on the strand reinforces her growing independence and agency. In chapter 11, she has already asserted herself by buying a car, negotiating a job with Mr Dakessian, and refusing to let Tony’s mother control the baby. The strand is where she tests her own physical resilience and, later, her emotional honesty. She tells Jim she is “the innocent one” in the marriage—a claim she could not make in Tony’s presence.
Jim Farrell and the Persistence of the Past
Jim’s repeated trips to the strand show his attachment to a possibility that never ended. In Chapter 12, he admits he drove down because he “worried we might never get a chance.” The strand is the only place he can speak to Eilis without the town’s eyes on him. For Jim, it is a threshold he keeps crossing, hoping that one day she will cross it with him.
Nancy Sheridan and the Strand’s Absence
Nancy never visits Cush. Her discovery of Jim and Eilis happens not on the strand but in her car, watching them kiss from a distance (Chapter 22, Section 1). The strand remains invisible to Nancy; it is the place her rival occupies. This physical absence mirrors her exclusion from the intimate truth of Jim’s feelings. Nancy’s false engagement announcement is a desperate attempt to claim a future that the strand’s conversations have already redirected.
Infidelity and Betrayal
The strand is where Eilis and Jim conduct their secret meetings, making it a symbol of emotional infidelity and betrayal. Eilis is still married to Tony; Jim is supposed to be in a relationship with Nancy. Every conversation on the strand involves a choice to hide the encounter from others. Yet the novel does not present these meetings as purely illicit—they are also acts of honesty between two people who were never allowed to choose each other.
Immigration and Displacement
The strand’s Irish setting contrasts with the beaches of Long Island, like Jones Beach, where Tony’s family gathered with friends. Immigration and displacement shape the strand’s meaning: Eilis is a visitor to the beach of her childhood, a person caught between two countries. In Chapter 21, she tells Jim she wants to “get everything back to normal” in America before he joins her. The strand becomes the hinge point between the Irish past she left and the American future she will return to.
Study Questions with Answers
Question 1
Why does Eilis swim in the cold sea at Cush in Chapter 11, and what does this act reveal about her state of mind?
Answer: Eilis swims because she resolves to “try the water now” after feeling anger and numbness about the unresolved threat of Tony’s baby. The cold water shocks her body and gives her a “glow of warmth” once she dries off. The swim is a deliberate act of self-assertion. She is testing her capacity to endure discomfort alone, without Tony or her mother. It shows her desire to feel alive and in control after days of passive waiting. The act prepares her for the uncanny encounter with Jim—she is physically alert and psychologically raw.
Question 2
How does Jim’s arrival on the strand change the space from a private retreat to a shared threshold?
Answer: Before Jim appears, the strand is Eilis’s solitary domain—she swims, walks, and dreams of waking to “the sun over the sea.” Jim’s presence transforms it into a stage for suppressed history. Their dialogue is full of unfinished sentences and evasions (“Do you ever think about me?”). The strand becomes a threshold because it is a place where neither of them can fully claim the other. Jim is intruding; Eilis is retreating. By the third walk, they have crossed the threshold together, walking “close to the water” and making plans. The strand shifts from a place of escape to a place of commitment.
Question 3
In what ways does the strand contrast with the beaches Eilis knows on Long Island, such as Jones Beach?
Answer: Jones Beach is described in Chapter 6, Section 5 as a social spectacle—crowded with Tony’s family and friends, marked by umbrellas, fashion, and communal swimming. The strand at Cush is empty, silent except for waves and birds. Jones Beach represents integration into the Fiorello world; Cush strand represents exile and self-reliance. On Long Island, Eilis is surrounded by family expectations; on the strand, she is alone with her choices. The two beaches mirror the two lives she must hold apart. The strand’s emptiness allows for the honesty that Jones Beach’s sociability forbids.
Question 4
What decision does Eilis make on the strand in Chapter 21, and why is this moment crucial for her character development?
Answer: Eilis tells Jim she has decided to leave Tony because “he had a baby with another woman.” She agrees to let Jim come to New York immediately, though she warns it will be hard. This moment is crucial because it marks the first time in the novel that Eilis commits to an action that serves her own desires rather than others’ expectations. She moves from the defensive silence she maintained in the car to the airport to an active plan. The strand, where earlier she could only evade Jim’s question, now becomes the space where she answers it truthfully: yes, she loves him, and yes, she will act on that love.