Redeeming 6

Joey Lynch is the other narrator and protagonist of the novel, as well as Aoife’s love interest. Joey is a hard worker and the star player on his school’s hurling team but thinks little of himself and often puts others’ needs before his own. These characteristics stem from Joey’s role in his family as a caretaker to his siblings. Joey’s life is heavily shaped by the abuse and neglect he has withstood since childhood, and over the course of the novel, he comes to terms with the full extent of the physical and emotional abuse he has suffered. With Teddy and Marie’s parenting, Joey is forced to grow up much faster than he should have, and he often takes on the burdens of the whole family. He acts as a father figure to his younger siblings and is also the primary breadwinner of the family due to his parents’ lack of concern for their children.

Joey began using drugs at a young age, starting with marijuana and escalating to more serious opioids. As the abuse he and his siblings suffered got worse, Joey’s addiction got more serious. He uses drugs as a way to escape the realities of his life and sometimes has thoughts of dying by suicide. One of the few things that keeps him alive is his relationship with Aoife, with whom he fell in love the first time they met. Though Aoife wanted to be his friend, Joey tried to avoid her because he didn’t want her to get involved in the trauma of his life, believing her to be too good for him—Joey struggles with feelings of inadequacy and a lack of self-esteem throughout the novel.

Even after he and Aoife reunite, Joey continues to struggle with self-doubt, and he is haunted by the idea that one day, he might become like his abusive father. This is Joey’s worst fear, which only heightens once he learns Aoife is pregnant and his son might eventually become like him. These worries culminate in Joey’s decision to leave his family and Aoife and consider dying by suicide toward the end of the novel. However, as Joey begins to recover in rehab, he starts to realize how important it is that he be there for Aoife and her child and finally commits to his recovery, completing his own character arc.

Joey is a dynamic character who changes in many ways throughout the novel, particularly once he has gone to rehab and therapy. Not only does Joey commit to his recovery and become a good father to AJ, but he also learns to deal with his impulses and comes to understand that his trauma doesn’t have to define him. Joey becomes more trusting as the novel progresses and eventually allows others to help him, as Aoife does. Similarly, Joey learns how important it is to step up and take care of others, not only for the sake of others but for himself as well.

Teddy and Marie Lynch are the parents of Darren, Joey, Shannon, Tadhg, Ollie, and Sean Lynch. They fell in love quickly when they were young, and Marie got pregnant shortly after, while they were still in school. Later in the novel, Teddy confesses to Joey that he married Marie even though he knew that he wouldn’t be good for her.

Teddy is the flat antagonist of the novel, as well as the three previous novels in the Boys of Tommen series. He is physically abusive to everyone in his family and sexually assaults the women around him. He excuses his behavior by saying that his father was abusive to him, but Teddy’s character also fits the stereotype of the unrepentant abuser. He offers no support or love to his children yet considers himself the protective head of the family. Walsh gives Teddy no redeeming qualities, and his final act is trying to escape a fire he set to burn down his house with his whole family inside. Yet even after Teddy’s death, he still haunts the family, particularly Joey, who fears he will grow up to be just like him. Just as Teddy considers abuse his generational curse, Joey fears he will pass the trauma he has dealt with and his coping mechanisms on to his son.

Marie Lynch is both a victim and a perpetrator of the toxicity of the Lynch family. Though she receives physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, she always defends his actions and tries to minimize the abuse. She does this for his abuse of others as well, including her children, whom she refuses to stand up for, even when Teddy nearly beats them to death. Marie manipulates Joey, abusing him emotionally and putting him in the position of caretaker, something she often neglects to do. She depends on him for protection as well as finances. Though Joey loves his mother, he knows that she has been even more harmful to him than Teddy has, telling her, “You fucked my head up worse than he ever did. He used his fists, but you? You got in my head” (644). Yet Marie also suffers greatly. She tries to keep her family together to follow the status quo, even though she sees how it could be detrimental. In the end, Marie dies when she refuses to leave Teddy, and Joey’s inability to protect her from Teddy haunts him long after the fire.

Darren, Shannon, Tadgh, Ollie, and Sean are Joey’s siblings, and they also suffer great trauma at the hands of their parents. When only the oldest children were born—Darren, Joey, and Shannon—they were sent into foster care, where Darren was separated from his younger siblings and sexually abused. When the children returned to Marie and Teddy, Teddy’s discovery of the abuse of Darren, along with the later revelation that Darren is gay, heightened Teddy’s abuse significantly, eventually causing Darren to leave home when Joey was only 12.

From then on, Joey took care of Shannon and his younger brothers Tadgh, Ollie, and Sean, as if he were their sole guardian. Shannon is a protagonist in the first two novels of the Boys of Tommen series, where the events of Redeeming 6 are recounted from her point of view. Along with Teddy’s abuse, she experiences bullying at every school she attends, which greatly affects her and her self-esteem.

The younger Lynch brothers are much more dependent on Joey, especially Sean, the youngest, who looks up to him like a father. Tadgh, at 12 years old, begins to take after Joey, especially as a protective brother. He threatens to kill Teddy when he is abusing Joey and nearly fights another student who makes fun of Shannon. Like Joey, Tadhg suffers greatly when his older brother leaves home, though Joey leaves only momentarily and later apologizes for his absence. Despite their struggles, all the Lynch children are ultimately rewarded with a relatively happy ending as they find a home together with the Kavanaghs and Joey’s new family.

Tony and Trish Molloy are Aoife’s parents, who act as foils for Teddy and Marie Lynch, starkly contrasting their parenting styles and home lives. Tony employs Joey at his garage and acts like a father figure to him in ways that Teddy doesn’t. However, he is disappointed when he learns that Joey got Aoife pregnant, pinning the responsibility almost entirely on Joey. In the end, his love for Joey and Aoife allows him to forgive the two and accept them as family. Trish is the first person that Aoife confides in when she gets pregnant. Though Trish and Aoife aren’t as close as Trish and Kevin, Aoife knows that her mother will be there for her no matter what. Though sometimes overprotective, Aoife knows she can rely on Trish for help, especially when she reveals she isn’t disappointed in Aoife because she got pregnant. Aoife learns how to put her child first by following Trish’s example.