In "Eveline," why did Joyce dedicate all these lines to talk about the unknown priest?

Early in 's
short story "," the wearylooks around the room,

reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many
years,.... from which we had never dreamed of being divided.  And yet during all those years she
had never found out the name of the priest who yellowing photograph hung on the wall above the
broken harmonium...

Like much of Eveline's life, the
photograph of the nameless priest is just there, without meaning.  Here her plight as an Irish
woman is portrayed by Joyce:  trapped into a meaningless life, Eveline turns over her paycheck
and is subjugated to her father, who is also abusive.  The priest was, at one time, a friend of
her father's, but he has now gone to Australia and is never mentioned.  Only a "casual
word" is given by the father when he "showed the photograph to a
visitor."

The...