Jeffery Archer’s new mystery, “False Impression” ends up with the following sentence in the very last scene where a shrewd FBI agent, Jack Delaney, invites his girlfriend, Anna Petrescu, whom he saved from a ferocious assassin by the skin of her teeth, to Irish stew dinner at his mother’s house to introduce her as his Miss Right.
“But before you agree, there’s something I have to tell you,” said Jack.
“And what’s that?” asked Anna.
“My mother is under the illusion that you’ve already been married three times, you have five children, not necessarily by three husbands, four of them are on hard drugs. Other one is in jail. She also thinks that you work in a far older profession than art consultancy.” (Jack actually made the same joke to his mother before).
Anna burst out laughing. “But what will you tell her when she discovers that none of it’s true.”
“You’re not Irish,” said Jack.
I don’t understand what this very last line, “You are not Irish” means. Does it mean you aren't innocent like my mom (or dumb like me), who is Irish? But readers already know his mother is Irish and Anna isn't.
There must be a definite reason why Arther Jeffery took bother to emphasize this great mystery with the specific phrase "You're not Irish." He shouldn't have inserted this phrase just for naught.
Does it still make sense if I replace Irish with other nations, say British, Scottish, American, French, Italian, or even Japanese, provided Jack’s family is as such?
Best Answer
Jack's mother will be so relieved that none of the other stories about Anna are true that she will be less upset when she finds out Anna is not Irish.
The context allows one to assume that Jack's mother has her heart set upon any woman Jack ends up with being Irish. Since Anna presumably isn't, Jack has told her all sorts of horrible untruths about Anna, painting her as the worst sort of person imaginable. The supposed result of her finding out that Anna is nowhere near as bad as she had been described is that she will be so relieved, she will overlook her non-Irishness. The joke could be told of any nationality or religion; the Irishness is incidental