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1-Page Summary of Secret Scripture

Overall Summary

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry won the Irish Book Award for Best Novel in 2008. It was also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize that year. The story is about Roseanne Clear McNulty, who lives at a hospital near Sligo in Ireland. She has been a patient there since she was young and doesn’t know her real age or where she came from originally. Her father told stories to entertain her when she was young, including tales of his time working as a ship’s captain while he lived in England.

Roseanne writes her personal history, or testimony. Dr. Grene is interested in Roseanne and observes her through his commonplace book. The narrative of the story shifts between these two characters as their lives converge throughout the novel. John Kane, an asylum custodian, also cares for Roseanne but doesn’t want to offend her because he likes her a lot.

Roseanne’s father was a rat-catcher, who had been fired from his job as the cemetery superintendent. He then got a new job at an orphanage. One day, while he was working there, a paraffin-soaked rat escaped from his grip before it could be thrown into a fire with other rats. The rat caused a fire that burned down the orphanage. Meanwhile, Roseanne’s mother descended further into madness and in Roseanne’s memory her father hanged himself. However, Dr. Grene later read Father Gaunt’s deposition which stated that the Irish Republican Army killed him because of previous activities with the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC).

Later, Father Gaunt visited Roseanne to try and convince her to convert from her Protestant faith. He was unsuccessful in his efforts, but he resented her for it. While Dr. Grene was learning about this part of Roseanne’s life story, he thought about his own wife who died because of poor health as a result of their marital problems.

After Roseanne’s father died, she took a job at Café Cairo in Sligo and met the jazz musician Thomas “Tom” Oliver McNulty. Tom was from a Catholic family that disapproved of their relationship because they were both Irish Catholics. They married despite this disapproval. John Lavelle reentered her life after her father passed away and asked to meet with her on Knocknarea Hill. She went against her better judgment but ended up meeting Father Gaunt, who convinced Mrs. McNulty and Tom to annul their marriage so that Roseanne would be condemned to live alone in a hut ostracized from the community for being an adulteress.

A woman named Roseanne had a baby, but her family didn’t help her. She gave birth alone on the beach and collapsed from exhaustion. When she woke up, her baby was gone. A pair of paramedics picked her up and took her to the hospital where she ended up staying in an asylum for the rest of her life.

While Roseanne is writing her testimony, Dr. Grene reads the deposition of Father Gaunt, which reveals that Joe was likely murdered and makes a solid case for what Father Gaunt perceived as Roseanne’s nymphomania. With the help of his colleague Percy Quinn, Dr. Grene obtains records confirming Joe’s service in the RIC and learns that Nazareth House is where Roseanne’s child ended up. In an ironic twist of fate, he finds out that he is actually the son whom she lost at Strandhill beach when they were both young children. He rushes back to Ireland and visits Roseanne who’s health is steadily failing due to pneumonia; she thanks him for saving her from prison but says it doesn’t matter anymore because she knows now why God allowed this all to happen: so that she could be close to one person in particular—her long-lost son (Dr. Grene). He goes on to confront John Kane by questioning him about how he arranged it so that Roseanne could be near her son after being released from prison; shortly thereafter Roscommon Hospital collapses into rubble and Kane appears before Dr. Grene as an angel rising out of its ashes; later on while driving through Sligo with his daughter Aileen, Dr. Grene stops at Strandhill Beach where he sees a lone rose bush left behind by Roseanne years ago still standing strong despite not having been tended to recently; although unkempt there are some blooms remaining on it which gives him hope knowing how resilient life can truly be even under harsh conditions such as neglect or abandonment