We prove a Harnack inequality for Dirichlet eigenfunctions of abelian homogeneous graphs and their convex subgraphs. We derive lower bounds for Dirichlet eigenvalues using the Harnack inequality. We also consider a randomization problem in connection with combinatorial games using Dirichlet eigenvalues. 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 247257, 2000