The Fairy Tale in The Connellys of County Down: Symbol Analysis
What the Fairy Tale Is
"The Connellys of County Down" is a bedtime story the Connelly children's mother invented about her three kids. In it, Eddie, Tara, and Geraldine trek through the County Down countryside in search of Connelly Castle, their rightful home. To reach it, they must cross the wild and tricky Fairy Forest, where each child must use a special power to help the others survive.
The story assigns each sibling a distinct role, which their father later recounts in full:
- Geraldine is the protector. She is strong, carries a backpack full of warm clothes, food, and tools, and pulls Eddie and Tara out of the bog with a rope.
- Eddie is the heart. When the group falters, he turns his cap backward rally-style, tells a story, makes them laugh, and carries them a little ways.
- Tara is the True North. She has an internal compass that is never wrong, and she always knows the right way to go.
The novel opens with an epigraph from G. K. Chesterton about fairy tales. Chesterton argues that fairy tales do not introduce children to fear—children already possess that awareness through imagination—but rather give them the idea that a threat can be overcome, supplying a heroic figure capable of defeating the dragon. This framing is essential to understanding the fairy tale's function in the novel: it is not an escape from hardship but a template for facing it.
Where the Fairy Tale Recurs
The story surfaces at several key moments, and its meaning shifts each time.
In Chapter Four, Tara returns to the attic above the garage and remembers playing there with Eddie as children. They pretended the attic floor was the spongy bog they had to cross without getting sucked under, and the cobwebs were booby traps that would incur the fairies' ire. This is the fairy tale as pure childhood play—a shared fantasy that made an ordinary storage room magical.
In Chapter Nine, Tara recalls her mother telling the tales at bedtime, the four of them piled on the twin beds, her mother's lyrical Irish brogue making the story richer, all of them staring up at a poster of the County Down landscape. Tara remembers only the basics—the Fairy Forest, Connelly Castle, the special powers—and cannot recall the details. When she asks Geraldine, her sister deflects: Tara should get her head out of the clouds and worry more about staying out of trouble.
In Chapter Thirteen, Tara again asks Geraldine about the special powers, hoping to draw the story. Geraldine recognizes the hint but refuses to discuss it. She privately dismisses the fairy tales as full of drama—warriors and goddesses and romance—and wonders what good they ever did anyone.
In Chapter Eighteen, the fairy tale takes on new weight. Geraldine, in a therapy session with Judy, reluctantly recounts the story. She remembers her own role—"In the story, I was … strong. I took care of Eddie and Tara"—and is visibly moved when Judy observes, "That's how your mom saw you, Geraldine." This is the first time the fairy tale is treated not as childish nonsense but as a reflection of how their mother understood each of her children.
The most significant recurrence comes in Chapter Twenty-Five. Tara, planning to flee after violating her parole, visits her father in the Bronx. He shows her an old photograph of the three siblings and recounts the fairy tale in full, revealing each child's special power. He tells her that what he liked most about the story was that "you all saved each other. You knew the way to go, but you needed Geraldine and Eddie to get there." Tara is stunned by a sudden memory of her mother's words: "You were the True North, Tara." The story, which she had been trying to remember for years, finally comes into focus—and it changes her decision to run.
How the Meaning Changes
The fairy tale's meaning evolves across the novel in three distinct phases.
Childhood fantasy. For the young Connellys, the story is pure imaginative play—a way to transform the attic into a magical landscape and to feel heroic together.
A source of division. As adults, the siblings relate to the story differently. Tara clings to it, asking for details, wanting to draw it, telling it to Conor. Geraldine dismisses it as unreal and resents Tara for filling Conor's head with "heroes, romance, and supernatural beings." The story becomes a point of tension between them, emblematic of Tara's impracticality in Geraldine's eyes.
A lesson in interdependence. In the final recurrence, the fairy tale becomes a moral framework. The father uses it to remind Tara that she does not have to be alone—that her siblings have roles to play in her survival, just as she has a role in theirs. The story's message—that the Connellys save each other—directly counters Tara's self-reliant instinct to run.
Character Connections
The fairy tale maps directly onto each sibling's role in the family.
Tara is the True North—the one who goes off to find the castle in the first place, who always knows the right way to go. This mirrors her impulsive, exploratory nature, but also her isolation. She has stopped trusting others, deciding that relying on herself is the only way to avoid being hurt. The fairy tale reminds her that knowing the way is not enough; she needs Geraldine and Eddie to get there. Her arc in the novel—from taking the blame for Eddie's crime to finally accepting help—is essentially the story's lesson made real.
Geraldine is the protector—strong, carrying the supplies, pulling her siblings out of the bog. This is a direct reflection of her real life: as a teenager she took on the household, cooked, cleaned, paid bills, and worried about losing Eddie and Tara to foster care. The fairy tale's power for Geraldine is painful; it shows her that her mother saw her strength, but also that this strength came at the cost of her own childhood. Her resistance to the story is a resistance to acknowledging that cost.
Eddie is the heart—the one who keeps everyone going with stories and laughter. In the novel, Eddie is the brother who carries guilt for the drug trafficking that Tara took the blame for. The fairy tale's depiction of him as the emotional center of the family is both a comfort and a challenge: he must learn to live up to that role by telling the truth, which he ultimately does when he confesses to Geraldine and plans to be honest with Lorraine.
Theme Connections
The fairy tale is deeply tied to the novel's central themes. It embodies the power of family storytelling and mythology, showing how a mother's invented story can shape her children's understanding of themselves for decades. It also connects to family loyalty and self-sacrifice: the fairy tale's message that the siblings save each other is the same principle that drives Tara to take the blame for Eddie's crime. For Geraldine, the story illuminates the hidden cost of caretaking—she was the protector, and it cost her a normal adolescence. And for Tara, the story's lesson about accepting help is central to her reintegration and second chances after incarceration.
Study Questions
1. How does the fairy tale's meaning change from Tara's childhood to her adulthood?
In childhood, the fairy tale is pure imaginative play—Tara and Eddie pretend the attic floor is the bog and the cobwebs are booby traps. As an adult, Tara clings to it as a way of remembering her mother, but she cannot recall the details of the special powers. When her father finally recounts the full story in Chapter Twenty-Five, it becomes a moral lesson about interdependence: Tara knows the way, but she needs Geraldine and Eddie to get there. The story shifts from fantasy to a framework for understanding her family and her own need to accept help.
2. Why does Geraldine resist the fairy tale, and what does her resistance reveal?
Geraldine dismisses the fairy tale as unreal and resents Tara for telling it to Conor. But in her therapy session, when she recounts her role as the strong one who took care of Eddie and Tara, she is visibly moved. Her resistance reveals the pain of her role: she was the protector in the story and in real life, and that role cost her a normal childhood. The fairy tale reminds her of what she lost, which is why she avoids it.
3. What is the significance of the father's role in the fairy tale's final recurrence?
The father is the one who completes the story for Tara. He shows her the photograph, recounts each sibling's power, and delivers the story's central message: "you all saved each other." His role is significant because he is the parent who abandoned the family, yet he has carried the photo and the story for years. His recounting of the fairy tale gives Tara permission to stop running and to trust her siblings—and it also suggests that the story's lessons belong to the whole family, not just the children.
4. How does the fairy tale connect to the novel's epigraph from Chesterton?
The epigraph argues that fairy tales do not introduce children to fear but give them the idea that threats can be overcome. The fairy tale functions this way for Tara: it does not shield her from the reality of her situation—she has violated her parole and faces prison—but it gives her a framework for overcoming it. The story supplies a heroic figure (the siblings working together) capable of defeating the dragon (her isolation and self-reliance). The fairy tale's message is that the Connellys save each other, which is exactly what Tara needs to hear when she is tempted to run.