Themes and message

Social conflict

The main theme of the story “Good Girl” by Marita Conlon-McKenna is the conflict between Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants during the end of the Troubles. 

Throughout the text, several attempts to solve this conflict are mentioned. For instance, Anna talks about “ ‘politicians signing peace agreements and the IRA and the Loyalists talking about cease-fires and handing in their weapons’ ” (p. 69, ll. 37-40), but also recognizes that safety is a long way from being achieved. Also, Ian and Chrissy met at a Programme for Mutual Understanding, which aims to bring together Protestant and Catholic pupils together and discover that they are not all that different. 

However, the conflict is still kept alive by people such as Eilish Dunne’s father, who makes “petrol bombs in a shed at the bottom of their garden” (p. 70, ll. 33-34), and gets sent to prison, thereby fueling his daughter’s hatred. The family connection is also underlined in the passage where the girls blame Ian for what happened to ...