Edna O'Brien In Edna O’Brien’s “Irish Revel,” Mary is a 17-year-old girl who’s been invited to a party in town. She dons a black dress that belonged to no one in particular in her family but came to her small farm home in Ireland all the way from America. It’s a dress she considers special — for a special occasion. She undoes her braids to reveal the crimped hair she may have deemed fancier than her normal straight locks or the braids themselves — a style to keep the hair out of her face while she tended to her baby twin siblings or the many chores on the farm. Her efforts to look special or fancy go unnoticed and she can’t shake the image of the “mountainy” girl assigned to her by the other girls at the party.