Summary
Manus enters, and asks what Yolland and Owen are laughing about. They joke that they are joyful about a "baptism"—the fact that Yolland has finally learned Owen's real name. They offer Manus a drink, but he doesn't want any, and says he has good news: he's been offered a job to teach at a hedge-school on the island of Inis Meadhon, for a salary of 42 a year. Owen urges Manus to speak English, but he refuses.
Owen is happy for his brother, and Yolland asks how far away the island is. When Manus says it's 50 miles, Yolland and Owen talk about going there for Christmas, and Yolland holds out his hand to congratulate him. They shake, warmly. They drink a toast, but immediately after, Manus goes to leave and tell Maire the news. Just as he says so, Maire enters and he tells her, but she seems unfazed.
Owen introduces Maire to Yolland, and they both seem very taken with one another. She tells the boys that there will be a dance the next night, and wants to know if Yolland will come. Manus wants to walk Maire home so he can talk to her mother about his new job, but she would rather stay and drink the poteen. Yolland leaps up onto his chair, exuberantly.
Scene 2. The next night, we see Maire and Yolland, holding hands, laughing and leaving the dance. They settle down, and suddenly become embarrassed to be holding hands. "Manus'll wonder where I've got to," Maire says, and they try to communicate, but cannot understand each other. Yolland introduces himself as George. Yolland tries to speak English slowly in hopes that she will understand, but it doesn't work. Maire speaks Latin, hoping he will understand, but it doesn't work.
Maire manages to think of an English sentence she knows: "In Norfolk we besport ourselves around the maypole." Yolland launches into a response, but suddenly realizes Maire barely knows what she just said. Maire becomes suddenly frightened that she said something dirty accidentally. She moves away from him, but he begins to say the Gaelic names for places in the area, and she turns towards him. They say the words to one another, and take each other's hands.
Yolland wants badly to tell Maire how much time he spends thinking about her. They each talk about the fact that they want to be with each other always. Yolland wants to stay in Ireland with Maire, and Maire wants Yolland to take her away. They do not understand one another, but they kiss, just as Sarah enters. Sarah yells for Manus and runs offstage.
Act 3. Sarah and Owen are in the schoolhouse the following night. It is raining outside, and Owen is working on his map while Sarah pretends to read, but keeps her attention on Manus' upstairs room. Eventually, Manus comes down with a bag and gathers up books from the classroom.
As Owen records names, Manus tries to tie up his bag of clothes with a rope, but it breaks in the process. Owen rushes upstairs to get his brother another bag. Left alone with Manus, Sarah tries to speak to him, but he ignores her. Owen returns with a bag, and Manus packs up his belongings.
Manus tells Owen that if the representatives from his school in Inis Meadhon show up, he should tell them that he still wants the job, but that he won't be free for another 3 to 4 months. "Clear out now and Lancey'll think you're involved somehow," Owen warns his brother, but Manus is intent on leaving. We learn that the previous evening, Manus was rageful at the sight of Yolland and Maire together, and yelled at Yolland. Now Yolland is missing, and Owen thinks that Manus will be implicated in his disappearance if he leaves.
Manus tells them he's going to Mayo and that he took only Virgil, Caesar, and Aeschylus. "I got them with the money I got for that pet lamb I reared," he says. He gives Owen instructions on how to take care of their father, ignoring Owen's questions about what to tell Maire. Owen offers him money, but Manus refuses it.
Before he leaves, Manus asks Sarah to tell him his name, but "without warmth or concern for her." She answers him and begins to cry. Manus kisses the top of her head and leaves.
Analysis
In this section, Manus manages to secure a good position at a school on a southern Island, but it is not impressive to Maire, his beloved. While he has wanted to get a job for the express purpose of being able to propose to Maire, she has drifted away from him, and seems less excited than he would have hoped about his recent promotion. Thus, we see that Manus has found himself in a rather tragic predicament of having missed his opportunity to impress the woman he loves.
A major reason Maire has lost interest in Manus is that she has found herself falling for the colonist, Yolland. When Manus tells her about his new job, she can barely stay focused on him long enough to congratulate because she is so nervous in the presence of Yolland, to whom she waves across the field every day. Maire's interest in the anglicization of the area, and her desire to leave Ireland behind, has extended into her romantic interests.
Act 2, Scene 2 finds Maire and Yolland alone in their mutual affection, but the only problem is they have no way of communicating with one another. Yolland is hopelessly bad at speaking Gaelic, and Maire never learned English, so they can only communicate physically, holding hands and laughing with one another. This scene is complex. Maire and Yolland's barrier to communication is like a romantic game, a pair of lovers who love one another across the barrier of history, but it is also evidence of how great the distance between English-ness and Irish-ness truly is.
Maire and Yolland have a pure love for one another, but they are also drawn together by a fundamental misunderstanding. Yolland sees Maire as an adequate reason to stay in Baile Beag and live as an Irishman, while Maire sees Yolland as a ticket out of Ireland, a reason to leave. Thus, while their affection for one another is real and deeply felt, their inability to communicate causes them to project very different ideas about their relationship onto one another, ideas that are fundamentally incompatible.
The end of this section ends with the tragic departure of Manus, who is humiliated by the romance that has emerged between Maire and Yolland. He packs up his things briskly and without emotion, and resolves to leave town at once, unable to bear the embarrassment of losing the woman he wanted to marry. He is not even warm with Sarah, for whom he has harbored such affection. His exit is swift and undemonstrative, and his chief concern is for his father's well-being.
