A Belfast housing project simmers with resentment at an influx of Polish immigrants. But Iris is too busy for "them and us." She pulls pints and struggles to raise her nephew's baby. Jamie has turned to drugs and lost his job after his ex Anna went back to Poland. Now Anna wants her baby back. Jamie vents his rage on the Poles he once worked with, and Iris must choose a side as her family is ripped apart.
Bernadette Brown
Iris
Nathan Quinn O'Rawe
Jamie
Sean Sloan
Tommy
Dominic Dornan
Marty
Laura Hughes
Bernie
A Belfast housing project simmers with resentment at an influx of Polish immigrants. But Iris is too busy for "them and us." She pulls pints and struggles to raise her nephew's baby. Jamie has turned to drugs and lost his job after his ex Anna went back to Poland. Now Anna wants her baby back. Jamie vents his rage on the Poles he once worked with, and Iris must choose a side as her family is ripped apart.
In 1950s Ireland and New York, young Eilis Lacey has to choose between two men and two countries.
An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.
After struggling to start a family, Julie Rivers becomes pregnant and moves into a new home with her husband. She's ordered to mandatory bed rest, and begins seeing ghostly happenings throughout the house.
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment, and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children—Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice—make it clear to the authorities this is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages.
Iris invites her friend Jack to stay at her family's island getaway after the death of his brother. At their remote cabin, Jack's drunken encounter with Hannah, Iris' sister, kicks off a revealing stretch of days.
When the ongoing rivalry between farmers Michael and Jack suddenly escalates, it triggers a chain of events that take increasingly violent and devastating turns, leaving both families permanently altered.
Maggie has had four children, by four different fathers, removed by social services because of a previous violent relationship. When she meets Jorge, a gentle Latin American refugee, she gradually sees her chance for happiness, but her history still haunts her.
Marcy, a worker in the reelection campaign of bumbling Senator John McGlory, is sent to Ireland on a quest to find the Irish ancestry of Sen. McGlory, to help him win the Irish vote. But when Marcy arrives in the small village of Ballinagra, she finds herself in the middle of a matchmaking festival, and the local matchmaker is determined to pair her off with one of the local bachelors.
John, a 35-year-old window cleaner, has dedicated his life to bringing up his 4-year-old son, Michael, after the child's mother left them soon after giving birth. When John is given only a few months left to live, he attempts to find a new, perfect family for Michael, determined to shield him from the terrible reality of the situation.