I thought this part was a little strange. Michael McBride stayed overnight in the manor, alone with Katie O'Gill while Darby was down in the mountain with the leprechauns. When Darby gets back, he doesn't seem the least bit concerned about it either.
shareI think Darby wasn't too concerned because he really wasn't away that long. He's captured not long after dinner and he's home well before dawn. Neither Katie nor Michael actually are aware that he's gone--at least not until Katie notices his bed hasn't been slept in, and by that time Darby's back.
shareAlso, Katie's in her early-to-mid twenties, not a child.
shareShe may be in her twenties but she is an unmarried "virgin", and at the time the film is set young unwed girls were forbidden from being alone with men.
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Unless they're with James Bond, in which case it's alright.
Darby wouldn't bat an eyelash for two reasons:
1.) Katie has a well-deserved reputation around town for being a good, chaste girl largely uninterested in men. She wouldn't be the type to allow a handsome young man to take advantage of the situation.
2.) Michael was shown to be a man of good and temperate values, greatly unlike Pony Sugrue, and I could see Darby trusting him to not try to make a move or force himself on Katie.
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Desperately searching for the song "Rayleen" by BB Chung King & the Buddaheads
Maybe "well-bred ladies" were, but these are Irish peasants. As long as the parish priest didn't catch wind of anything they'd be fine.
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