Secret of Roan Inish, The (1994)

[bunniefuu]

Lord of all flesh...

and in whose ever embrace
all creatures live.

And whatsoever world
or condition they be...

I beseech Thee to pull her hand
to His name and dwell into.

And every need Thou knowest.

Thou art life and rest,
refreshment...

joy and consolation and paradise
and in companionship...

of the saints...

in the presence of Christ
and the hands that hold...

all guide with love.

Where's Father?

He's in the pub.

- It's the little sprat again.
- Poor creature.

As pale as a fish's belly.
And those eyes!

She's only lost in the world.

And what would you be in a strange land
without a mother's touch?

- A drunkard!
- You're already that.

Jim, wake up, will ya?
It's your daughter.

How are you, girl?

She's worn out.
Open your eyes!

She looks as if she's raised
in a tin box.

Fresh air. That's the ticket.

A little sprat like her breathing
the poison fumes in this town's air.

Take her to the country.

There's no work to be had at home.

I'm never going back to the island.

That's done.

A lemon squash for you, dear.

This isn't a place
to be raising a girl.

I do my best.

You try, bless you.

Why not send her to her grandfather's?

You'd like that, wouldn't ya, love?

You'd like that,
living with the old people.

Grandfather!

Fiona.

- We were expecting you later.
- Father put me on the morning boat.

You climbed all this way up
by yourself?

It's great to see ya!

Your grandmother saw you below.
She nearly had a fit.

She knew it was me?

With that head of hair? At double the
distance, I'd know you were a Coneelly.

Your father and his brother the same.

All but forJamie.
He's the only dark one.

You better not mention anything
aboutJamie in front of Grandmother.

She's gettin' the tea ready
for you now.

Oh, look at your arms, dear.

Like sticks they are.

- Eat up now.
- It's the sea air she's needin'.

I hear you can't find
a proper hen's egg in that city.

The ones here is nothing compared
to what was laid on the island.

You and that island.

'Tis true. Didn't our own cow only give
half the milk she gave in Roan Inish?

What's done is done.
There's no use moaning over it.

Why did we have to leave?

It was the young people,
like your father and his brothers.

They were restless on the island.

Then came the w*r
and jobs across the sea.

Now as they have the taste of the city
in their blood...

City indeed!
Nothing but noise, dirt...

and people that's lost their senses.

Couldn't tell the difference
between a riptide and a raindrop...

if you shoved their face in the water.

- But you and Grandmother...
- Oh, no. We couldn't start from naught.

Living alone on an island.

There isn't a thing out there for us
but sad memories.

Can you see it from here?

If the sky is willing, some can.

Look out there.

Do you see a lighthouse
on a long flat island?

I think I do.

Then beyond there to your right...

a great island of dark hills.

There's a wee green bit
of an island between them.

- She sees it!
- You put it into her head!

She sees it!

Only them that's born to the islands
can see it from this distance.

They say the east is our future
and the west is our past.

The island's to the west of us, Hugh.

That's Roan Inish, girl.
Island of the seals.

There's more of them now
that the people have deserted.

- You've been out there?
- Once a week if the current's right.

- God bless all here.
- Eamon! Get in and sit for tea.

You remember him, Fiona?
Your cousin Eamon, Uncle Patrick's boy.

Hello.

You moved back to the west.
Are you pleased?

I'm well pleased.

How come you never left
with your family?

I tried it for a month,
then I ran back here.

I'm not clever enough to live in town.
Too fast for me.

He's as good a young fella in a curragh
as ever I've seen.

Love of the sea is a sickness.

You two will come to grief for it.
Eat.

- She seen Roan Inish on her first look.
- Is that so?

You go there, too?

I've not set foot there
since the evacuation.

But Grandfather knows the shoals
all about it...

and what feeds there and when.

We always come back with a full net
when the rest are scared to fish it.

- Why are they scared?
- Eamon.

Oh. Tales is all.

Tales of what?

If it clears up this evening,
you might see the light again.

Light?

There's an end of it!

I'll not have nonsense
and superstition in my house.

Here. Do your duty by those cakes.

They won't keep. Your grandfather's
already filled his gullet.

The sea gives,
and the sea takes away.

This...

is my father's father's father now...

a Coneelly man...

when he was only a few years older
than you are now.

His name was Sean Michael.

Smart boy, dark haired.
Bit of the rebel in him.

Though times weren't as hard
on the island as on the mainland...

it's never easy pulling a living
from the sea.

The English were still a force
in the country then.

They had the schools.

It was their language and their ways
that you had to learn there, or else.

There was a new schoolmaster
in the school one year.

As stiff as a cat's whiskers, he was.

And Sean Michael wasn't a week
in his class...

before he put the cingulum
about his neck.

It was a punishment of those days
for speaking irish within his earshot.

Eject! Eject!

Sean Michael stuck it out
for as long as he could...

for he had a strength of character.

But the shame was too great,
and he tore it from his neck...

and he went for the schoolmaster and
began to beat on the man crying out...

Hugh, please!

It's a little girl.

You don't understand,
do you, girl?

I don't have any Irish.

- More is the pity of it.
- Aye.

Sean Michael's father had great hopes
for the boy, clever as he was...

that he would learn to read
the Englishman's language...

and study his laws, and grow to be
a leader for his people.

But there was his son, knuckles bloody,
anger in his heart...

standing before him.

"You'll need to k*ll me
to make me go back," he says.

His father sighed then,
and looked out to the sea beyond them.

"You'll have nothing now," he said...

"but the black rocks, the wild waves
and the hard sky above you."

And wasn't it his first trip out
with his father...

that a fierce storm from the north
blew over them.

Sean Michael, his father,
brothers, uncles and cousins...

four boats in all.

And it took them in its terrible grip...

lifted them high
and turned them over...

and slapped them back down
into the violent black sea...

with the scraps
of their curraghs around them.

His father, caught in their net
and dragged below without a whisper.

Out as far as they were, in a northern
storm, an experienced fisherman...

would swallow his draught of water
and swim to the bottom.

For to fight the cold sea
is only to prolong your suffering.

But Sean Michael was green with it.

And he flailed and cried out...

and he beat the water
with his legs and arms...

till the sea grew to hate him
and refused to swallow him up.

It was a full day later...

when people gathering mussels
on the strand found him.

Some was even afraid to touch him.

It was women mostly,
softhearted as they are.

The boy was more dead than alive.
Cold as ice to the touch.

There wasn't a fire in ireland could
bring the blood of life back into him.

This is the time when the country people
still lived with their beasts inside.

And the woman as owned the house
they brought him to said...

"Here, bind him up to my cow."

And then she brought another alongside.

And their heat went out through him.

Soon he began to shiver,
and then he began to shake.

And then he slept like a Christian...

for hours and hours.

When he started to sweat, the woman
cut him loose from her animals...

and they bathed him, and wrapped him
in blankets warmed in the hearth.

He woke to their faces above him...

all women and girls.

"Is this heaven, then?"he said.

"No, lad,"said the woman of the house.

"It's only Tech Duin."

Tech Duin is the islands
where the people thought...

that the souls of all Ireland's dead
were held to rest.

So Sean Michael
believed he had drowned...

and come to the hereafter.

"'Twas a seal that brought me here,"
he told them.

"I was sinking under...

destroyed by the effort
of keeping my head above the swell.

And a body, warm body...

came under me and lifted me up.

It was a seal
from the feel of its hide.

A great dark seal that bore me
along through the storm...

and i hugging its neck.

That's all i remember until i woke
to your faces above me."

Now, with his father and brothers...

and uncles and cousins all gone...

there was only Sean Michael left...

to keep the Coneellys alive
in these islands.

He was saved by a seal?

- And two cows.
- And a woman as had her wits about her.

It's a wonderful story.

Some think so.

And some say you should
never save a drowning man.

What the sea will take,
the sea must have.

That's a lot of foolishness.

It's said that some that are saved
turn wicked afterwards.

What happened to Sean Michael,
your great-grandfather?

Jailed by the English.

Died in prison a man of 50.

Smuggling arms to the Fenians,
he was.

That's enough for now.

Take the child to bed, Hugh.
She's exhausted.

Aye.

Sweet dreams, dear.

Superstitious old man!

I rake this fire
as the pure Christ rakes us all...

with Mary at the foot
and Brigid at the head.

And may the eight brightest angels
from the City of Grace...

preserwe this house and all its people
till the coming of the day.

The light.

Out into the sun with you, now.

You'll find him below on the strand.

Just follow the path across.

Grandfather!

Ah, Fiona!

I was just wishing
I had someone to lend me a hand.

It'd be a great help to me if you
kept stirring the tar in this bucket.

I'd love it.

In the olden times
people used cowhide on their curraghs.

Then it was calico.

Now we make do with canvas.

The tar is what it always was.

- Would you like some tea?
- Yes, please.

She's put in an extra mug for ya.

There.

I think I saw the light last night.

Light, is it?
What light might that be?

The one Eamon spoke of
on Roan Inish.

There's plenty of things could be taken
for a light in the dark.

And no tellin' how far off
they might be.

You want me
to forget aboutJamie.

We'll none of us forget him, dear.

But life goes on.

Can't even remember when we lost him.

I was already off in the ship
when it happened.

It was a strange day.

Everyone on the beach
for the evacuation.

The air was very still,
like it is sometimes before a storm.

It was like a dream that day...

slow, terrible dream that you watch.

You can't stop it.

All the people had rode out,
and most of the goods.

There was only your father
and brother ashore...

and weeJamie sleeping in his cradle.

- In his cradle?
- Aye.

Pulled up on the beach.

Jamie!

Wait! Help me!

Look there!

Jamie!

"Jamie!" he called.

"We're comin', boy."

I don't know how the cradle
could've made up so much speed.

The sea had taken
poor weeJamie.

It was angry with us
for leavin' Roan Inish.

Mind that tar, love, or it'll be stiffer
than an old man on a winter's night.

- He could still be out there.
- Jamie?

Alive?

And cows could have wings.

You see this?

It's a seal rent it open.

They're terrible rascals
for stealin' fish.

One stared at me
from the rock when I came in.

Maybe he's fell in love.

You've got to be careful
'cause one day a year...

all the seals gather
to choose their new king.

And it's said whichever
of the island girls he fancies most...

is taken below to live
as his queen.

- That's just stories.
- Some stories is true, though.

Grandfather told me aboutJamie,
about when he was taken.

- Did he tell you the rumors?
- About what?

There's them who claim
to have seen him.

LittleJamie sailing the seas
in his cradle boat.

What does he look like?

They say he's grown
into a fine little gossoon...

sittin' in the stern of his cradle
like a captain in his ship.

Always there's creatures about him.

Seals swimmin' in the water...

great crowd of sea gulls
squawkin' overhead.

If you call out or try to come closer,
he vanishes...

in a great splash in the water and wings
flappin' like a phantom they say.

Where do they see him?

Comin' back from the far side
of the island, close to Roan Inish.

- Grandfather!
- Shh! Don't let on I told you!

What is it?

Can I go out with you sometimes
in your boat?

It'll be a few days
before the tar is dried.

Then?

Well, we'll have to ask
your grandmother first.

She won't have you out on a boat
unless the day is fine.

Grandmother!

I've lost track.
Is this Roan Inish?

Quiet now, and you'll see something.

See that little fellow?
It's his first year at sea.

He's the one that stared at me
from the boat coming over.

I'm sure he is.

You scared 'em away
with your screechin'.

He was the one I saw.
He really did remember me.

Hide your face then,
or he'll be takin' you for a wife.

- Don't scare the child.
- Fiona's never scared.

- Are you?
- His name is Jax.

- How do you know that?
- It just is.

- There it is.
- Roan Inish?

Aye.

Isn't it beautiful?

Do you remember it, Fiona?
That was your house at that end.

- Tess and I were next door.
- And ours was the one beyond.

Right. We'll set those pots
and be back.

Don't wander too far.

I wish you could talk to me.

Fiona!

We better be goin'
while the tide's still with us.

- Do you miss it greatly?
- Roan Inish?

It's only a place, I suppose.

Mostly I miss the way of life.

You're surrounded by the sea,
your whole family about you.

I'm movin' back.

When I'm a man.

You'll be a sorry sight on your own,
hauntin' the island on your lonesome.

- I'll have a wife.
- But will she have you?

Not many women these days see
much romance in hard work and solitude.

I'm movin' back just the same.

I remember the evenings best.

We'd drop over and your mother,
God rest her...

would be layin' out food.

Your father smokin',
dryin' his feet by the fire.

Then you, Fiona, and poor weeJamie...

off in the corner
with little pieces of dinnerware.

Tea parties, it was.

You were always a great one
for the tea parties.

Someone's been in our old cottage.

- Vandals, is it?
- No.

Someone is living there.

Don't be daft.

I saw a footprint,
a footprint of a little boy.

- Why didn't you show it to us?
- A wave destroyed it.

There's all sorts of things that
can look like a footprint in the shore.

I saw it! I did!

- So you saw the island today?
- Yes.

And the houses are in
a terrible state, I suppose?

They weren't so bad,
with a little cleaning.

Ah, if you're idle for a week,
nature takes it back.

There'll be birds nestin'
in the thatch and chimney.

Creepy-crawly things
in every corner.

It wasn't so bad. Our old cottage
looked as if we left it a day ago.

There was sand and everything,
blowin' off the beach.

It was clean, though.

And the mornings...

and the mist on the water.

We could move back. Grandfather said
it's the best fishing.

Oh, child, I couldn't think of it.

I've only the picture in my mind of
your poor little brother floatin' away.

The only real tragedy in life is young
people passin' on before their time.

I always remember his eyes.

Dark they were,
with a great soul behind them.

Oh, he was here before.

Jamie.

Tess, don't start.

Right.

One and a quarter pounds
to the grain.

You're a mean, penny-pinchin'
creature, Flynn.

Fiona, darlin',
you have my purse.

- Is this the granddaughter then?
- It is.

She isn't one of the dark ones,
is she?

Mind your own business.

You wait here, darlin',
while I go and fetch your grandfather.

I could get him.

I'll not have a young girl
exposed to the layabouts in that pub.

You call this fresh, do you?
You ought to be ashamed.

She's the original tough customer,
old Tess.

What's "dark ones"?

You said before
that I wasn't a dark one.

- Haven't they told you?
- Told me what?

Come along then.

There's an example for you.

Tadhg'd be your father's first cousin.

Once in a generation
the Coneelly's spit out a dark one.

- Like my brotherJamie?
- Aye!

Tadhg would be the one
ahead of him.

Will he know me?

You can talk to him if you like, but
there's no saying if he'll talk back.

He's a bit special,
if you know what I mean.

Hello.

I'm Fiona, Fiona Coneelly.
You know my father.

I know you.

You do?

- You're after something?
- I am?

It's as plain as day.

Will I find it?

I've no idea of the future...

but I can see the past quite well...

and the present,
if the weather's clear.

Better leave off.
You're frightening the wee girl.

She's not easily frightened, this one.

Am I right?

- Do you know why I'm dark?
- 'Cause his brain's leakin' shoe polish.

- That's enough!
- Easy.

The Coneellys first came
to Roan Inish...

when it was still only Irish spoken
on the islands.

They built their meager homes
on the beach...

and the seals and the birds moved aside
to make room for them.

There's only a few families,
and all related.

So when it came time to find a mate,
it was elsewhere you had to look.

There was a boy among them, Liam...

who always preferred to be alone.

He set his own traps,
built his own curragh.

He sat alone
at all the family gatherings.

One day walking about
the outer islands...

he saw a thing his eyes
could scarce believe.

In them days, the seals was hunted
for their oil and hides.

Clubbed to death, and made into coats,
pouches and pampooties for the feet.

But Liam never took part in it...

for he believed as many did then...

that there was no worse luck
than to harm a seal.

Liam had seen a selkie.

A creature that's half human,
half beast.

Old stories told of such creatures...

luring ships onto the rocks,
and pulling sailors down into the drink.

But all Liam knew...

was he had never seen a woman
so lovely in all his life.

Now it was said the whoever
could capture the hide of a selkie...

would have it in their power...

to command as they would.

The selkie maid
had seen man before.

Fled from their fishing hooks
and their spears and mattocks.

But never had she seen one
as glorious handsome as Liam Coneelly.

All the islanders
had seen Liam row out to sea alone.

And now all saw his return
with the strange girl.

Island people is a careful lot.

Not likely to pass judgment
on another person's business in public.

There was something so unearthly
about the girl...

that soon set their tongues to wagging.

There was much shaking of heads
when Liam married the stranger.

She hardly spoke at all,
and when she did...

her Irish was q*eer sounding.

More ancient
than their grandfather's grandfather's.

And when they asked him
where he had found her...

with her great dark eyes...

and her wild black hair...

he'd only say Trabeg.

Of course this was nonsense because
it was only a speck in the ocean...

that even the seals had to leave
when the tide was high.

And she'd always be at the water...

Iooking out at the seals and the birds.

She'd come back each day with her hands
full of shellfish and seaweed...

which she'd simmer
over a driftwood fire...

in a manner all her own.

But all had to admit
that she was a good wife for their Liam.

Before long, she was asking him
to build a cradle for their firstborn.

It must be made of the wood of a ship
that sailed the ocean, she told him.

And there'll be no need for rockers for
it will rock on the motion of the sea.

It was the queerest-lookin'thing.

More of a ship than cradle.

And carved with shells, fish
and seaweed.

And whenever the day was calm,
they put the babe afloat on the water.

Rocking on the sea, with the ripple
of the waves for a lullaby.

The years passed...

and Liam and Nuala, for that's what
the selkie called herself...

was happy in their work.

And their love grew
and they had many children.

With all that...

there was always a touch of sadness
about Nuala.

And she spent long hours looking out
at that that she had come from.

And listening to the cries of the seals
on the outer islands.

One of these afternoons,
it was her eldest...

who was called Fiona...

said the words to her
that changed their home.

Why does Father hide a leather coat
in the roof?

Later that evening...

as Liam was rowing home...

he was followed by a solitary seal.

It seemed joyous in its movements.

It rolled and dived within the waves...

joyous in the sleekness of its body.

Its eyes, as with all its kind...

held a sadness as deep as the soul.

When the seal left him at last...

Liam felt a great emptiness inside
of fear!

He rowed furious for the shore even
though the sea was heavy on his oars.

When he got home...

it was the faces of his children
told him his fears were true.

For once a selkie
finds its skin again...

neither chains of steel
nor chains of love...

can keep her from the sea.

From that day on...

it was forbidden to harm a seal
on the island.

And man and beast lived side by side,
sharing the wealth of the sea.

And sometimes the Coneellys
would see her...

out in the waves...

basking in the sun on Trabeg...

watching them...

watching her children.

And the cradle was passed on
through the years...

with each new infant of the Coneellys
rocked upon the waves within it.

And every so often...

there'd be one born with the dark eyes
and black hair...

that the selkie had left
in their blood.

And these darks ones
were most at home at sea.

Great sailors and fisher folk,
every one of them.

Like Tadhg here.
He's an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Fiona! Get out from there!
Your grandfather's ready.

Welcome back, Fiona Coneelly.

We've been waitin'.

Is he mad?

Tadhg.

Oh, no, he's not mad.

A wee bit strange, maybe.
Always has been.

He was a sailor for a little while.
Off to savage islands in the East.

Places a Christian man
does well to avoid.

- Did he upset you?
- No. He was very pleasant.

You're not to mind
anything he says to you.

Poor fellow doesn't know
if he's wide awake or dreaming.

Your grandfather and I have to go
to Kilmurry Banks tomorrow.

To deal with the landlord.
Would you like to come?

Or maybe go with Eamon?

He has to deliver a parcel for
the postman among the smaller islands.

I'd like to go with him.

If the weather holds
and you dress warm.

He's a troubled soul,
Tadhg Coneelly.

It's as if he's caught
between earth and water.

And when the sun is just four fingers
above the horizon, you'll be waiting?

I promise.

And if the weather turns foul?

I'll go into the cottage
and wait for you. I promise.

- You remember where there's water?
- I do.

If any harm comes to you,
they'll have me head.

- I'll be careful.
- All right then.

Jamie!

Jamie, I found you at last!

Jamie! Come back to me!

- Right on time.
- I saw him today.

- Saw who?
- Jamie.

Sure you did.

I did!

I went into the cottage
and made a fire.

I fell asleep and dreamed
of the selkie woman.

When I woke, I climbed
to the top of the island.

I saw that seal, the little one
that's been watchin' me.

Then I was walkin', and he was there.
Jamie, pickin' flowers!

But he ran from me. And before
I could reach him, he was gone.

Gone where?

In his cradle.
He sailed away around the rocks.

There's talk of spirits here.

He wasn't a spirit. He's a little boy.
I saw the flowers he pulled up.

He dropped them when he ran.
Can a spirit do that?

You've got to believe me.
I saw him.

I do believe you. But you mustn't tell
our grandparents about what happened.

- You weren't supposed to be here.
- But if they knew?

They'd think you were dreaming it all.

Let me think about it.
We'll come up with a plan. Agreed?

Agreed.

Good evening, Grandfather.

Grandfather?

What's wrong?

Oh, there you are, dear.

What is it?

You know, we don't own this house.

The landlord says he got a letter today
from some wealthy people overseas...

who wants a place to summer in.

"A gold mine," he called it.

- Where will you go?
- Inland. Nothing is available here.

It was bad enough your grandfather
having to come in off the island.

But to take him away from the sea.

I'm fearin' his spirits will fail him.

They can't do that.

It isn't fair.

It's the times, darlin'.

After a w*r, people are always ready
to cut off the past and go forward.

We're the ones left behind
is all.

That's not your worry, Fiona darlin'.

Your shoulders is too narrow
to be carryin' all of that.

It's not lifting at all.

The mackerel won't see us comin', then.

It's not fish I'm talkin' about.

We can't take this wee one out
with dirty weather comin' up.

It'll clear, you'll see.

You're an expert now, are ya?

I'm sorry, but your grandmother would
never forgive me if you took a chill.

You'll see naught but gray water
on a day like this.

It's for the best.

And be careful climbing up to the house.

Wait! Your sandwiches!

Grandfather?

Eamon?

Is that you?

Jax, I can't see you.

Jax, is that you?

Are you still there?

Hello! Is anybody out there?

What's happening?

Where are we going?

Won't you come ashore with me?

Jamie!

Jamie, it's me, Fiona.

No, Jamie! Don't go!

It's your sister!

Why must you always run from me?

I know you're out there,
and I know you can understand me.

Give him back! Do you hear?
He's a little boy.

He belongs with his family.

I know you've taken care of him,
but he has to live with people now.

I miss him so.
And so does Grandmother and Grandfather.

And all the rest.
Miss him terrible.

If we came back,
would you give him to us?

If we came back here, to Roan Inish.
Is that what you want?

Are you still there?

That you, Fiona?

We saw the fire.

Grandfather!

Christ Almighty, Fiona.
We were worried sick about you.

I sat in the boat,
and it broke free.

Seals came from out of the fog.

And I looked and looked, but he wasn't
there. There was smoke in the chimney.

Jamie was inside havin' tea with
a little seal, but then they ran away.

She's gone crazy
with some kind of fever.

I'm not sick!

How did you get out here, then?
And slow this time.

In the boat.
It drifted.

There's no oars in it.
And look at this.

He set a table inside with shells.
You can see it.

Someone's playin' tricks on us,
and it might be you.

I don't lie.

I believe her.

It's the madness
that runs in the family.

He's in the cradle,
and there's always seals about.

That's from talkin' to Tadhg, isn't it?
He put all this into your head.

- But, Grandfather...
- Not another word.

Get in that curragh.

I need silence to think up
some likely excuse for your grandmother.

Ah, seals indeed!

- Good mornin' to ya.
- Good mornin'.

Where's Grandfather?

He's already into the pub this mornin'.

And he'll be less likely to come out
as it was a black mood he left with.

I gave him hard with my tongue
for takin' you out yesterday.

Nothing bad happened.

Is Eamon going out
in the motor boat today?

It doesn't matter whether he is.
You're not goin' with him.

There's no need of the bleak ocean
for catchin' a dose of fresh air.

One day ashore won't k*ll you,
will it?

No, ma'am.

Hello.

- Have you seen him?
- Why does he run from me?

- Why do you chase him?
- He's my brother. He's lost.

He isn't lost at all. He's just
with another branch of the family.

- Why look at me like that?
- Don't know whether to believe you.

People say you're daft.

They have their reason.

Have you ever seen him?
Have you ever seen Jamie?

I may be daft, girl...

but I'm not blind.

- Fisherman's bend.
- Right.

We've got to get them to move back.

I don't see how.

They're going to lose their house.

Nobody's been on the island for years.

It's derelict with weeds,
the cottages is fallen to ruin.

Bowline. The cottages aren't so bad.

I've been in them. Didn't you say
you planned to move back?

When I'm a man.

What's to stop you now?

Grandmother will be the hard nugget.

She worries awful
about Grandfather's health.

Carrick bend.

She'd move back forJamie, though.
In a minute she would.

Them that's caring for him
won't let him back...

until they see we've returned,
I'm sure of it.

- You've been speaking with the seals?
- We could start fixing the cottages.

What do you think?

- I'll meet you here in the mornin'.
- I'll say we're off digging clams.

Pull this for a deal.

Granny's knot.

Help me with this.

Look at that, will ya?

It's all our food floatin' away.

We could row after it.

Not without losing half a day
in the chase. Come on, then.

Look.

It could've tipped in the waves
and all spilt out.

Do you think that's what happened?

Not for a moment.

- How did the mussel gathering go?
- We worked wonders with them.

- Didn't we, Fiona?
- It was hard work.

Be careful not to overtax yourself.

I won't. It's good for me.
Look at my muscles.

It's improved your appetite anyway.

You came in here as though
the hunger of the world was on you.

We should plant some things up here.

When we move back,
there'll be time.

We'd better start back.
The tide won't wait.

Mother?

Your mother is it?

- Where did she come from?
- Hasn't your father told you that?

He doesn't like to speak of her.

She came from Balleybofey
back in the mainland.

Traveling the hills in search of a meal
and a place to sleep.

They was poor.

Her father with no livelihood,
only his day's pay.

Seldom he had even that.

They say the only true wealth
is land.

Like we own in Roan Inish.

- For all the good it does us.
- Quiet, Hugh.

Jimmy, your father, was me youngest,
and the dearest of me heart.

Oh, but he was an airy boy.

Bone lazy at times, and at others you'd
never find a worker as keen as him.

Like night and day he was,
depending on the mood that struck him.

Can't put a wise head
on a young body.

She was in Donegal town for
the pilgrimage on St. Brigid's day...

which was her namesake.

Sixteen years of age.

Beautiful, strong Christian girl.

Sun or stars never shone
on a better one.

I loved her like a daughter,
our Brigid.

- And Father was there?
- We'd a run on mackerel that year.

A great patch of them
shoaling up behind the island.

Our men were barely able to dip
their nets in the water fast enough.

Your father and Matt Margonn
had gone off to the mainland...

to sell what they had left over.

First time he laid eyes on Brigid
she was leaving the church.

He was struck speechless
with the sight of her.

It was the shyness of an island boy,
and she wasn't a worldly girl at all.

But toJimmy,
anyplace off of Roan Inish...

might have been Paris, France.

So there he is, making honey
in his heart of her good looks.

Meanwhile, she's just as struck.

With him a big, handsome, powerful lad,
with eyes that melted all the girls.

And she's in a hundred pieces,
wondering what she could do to meet him.

Did he speak to her?
What did he say?

"Would you like to buy some fish, miss?"

She said she'd love to.
She'd never tasted fish...

from the salty ocean
in all her life.

But she hadn't a shilling to her name
to buy it with.

They fell into talking,
great with each other immediately...

as happens with the young.

I remember the day she came.
Sittin' in the back of the curragh.

I says to Tess, " Look at the prize
Matt Margonn brought from Donegal."

"No," she says, "for look how Matt's got
his eyes straight ahead at the island.

OurJimmy is rowing,
so he won't let her out of his sight."

From that day, Jim had the name
of a steady husband...

and a hard worker.

As fine as any that ever broke bread.

She grew to love the island,
our Brigid.

She was the last one to marry
on to Roan Inish.

And the last one to die in it.

He always blamed himself...

for bringin' her into
the life of the sea.

But life can be hard
on the mainland, too.

Your hands is gettin' rough.

It's pulling mussels
that does it.

Look at them clouds.
Gathering for a right blow tonight.

It's going to be hell's own fury
for any creature caught without shelter.

- HopeJamie comes in.
- What was that you were sayin'?

I said I hopeJamie comes in
out of the storm.

- What can you mean?
- I've seen him, Grandmother.

She just dreamed him up
sleeping one day on Roan Inish.

A wish can be a powerful thing.

I saw him. Once on a hillside
picking flowers...

and once in the cottage
having tea with a seal.

I'm not imagining it. I've seen him.
He was without a stitch.

Then he nipped away
in his little cradle boat.

The seals have been lookin' after him.

- The seals, is it?
- It's the truth, Grandmother.

It is.

Oh, dear.

There's a box of biscuits on the shelf.
Will you get it down for me?

Tess?

Put the chickens in their coop
like a good girl.

- Is she all right?
- What have you got?

You don't want to sleep out
on the cold ground, do you?

Look at that sky.

I can read a sky as well as you.
There's a storm comin'.

And it's no weather to be leavin'
a small boy outside in.

I knew he wasn't gone from us.

Holy Mother,
I felt it all along.

Hurry on, will ya?
I'll get the lantern.

And they say the Coneellys
is the mad ones.

Mind the bedding, Eamon.

It'll be damp enough in those wraps
without a dousing of seawater.

What are you staring at now?

Where's that Fiona got to?

I need her to help gather seaweed
for soup.

Tess, look what they've done.

Bless us, sweetJesus.

Now this is a soup as only the women
of Roan Inish know how to make.

She learned it from my mother,
Lord be good to her.

Who got it from hers, who got it
from hers before that again.

All the way back
to the first Coneellys.

They learned it from the dark woman,
from Nuala.

Some tell it like that. Yes.

When you're out in dirty weather...

it's like the lifeblood
flowin' back into your veins.

- It's part of the backbone of a whale.
- Jamie brought it in.

Well.

You young ones did a great job
on this thatching.

It'll have its test
in a few minutes.

- It's a south wind, Grandfather.
- Aye.

They're often the most fearsome.

Jamie.

Poor little soul.

It's the little seal.

Do you feel it?

- Like snuffin' out a candle.
- Look!

Jamie!

Jamie, it's me, Fiona.
We've come back for you.

No, Jamie, don't go.
It's your family here.

Don't frighten him, dear.

Heavenly Father, look at that!
They're telling him to stay.

But he's afraid.
He's so afraid.

Come on, Jamie boy.

There you go, love.

We'll be staying here now.

Thank you.

Lord love his little heart.
He's hungry.

How did you live out there?
What did you eat?

I wouldn't think
he could answer.

I'll teach you to talk,
and I'll tell you stories.

Your friends who have been looking after
you can see you any time they like.

Fiona's to thank
for finding you, Jamie boy.

She gave me her word.

I just wouldn't believe it.
Will you look at us?

Back in Roan Inish.

It's like breathing fresh air
after being three years on the ground.

Do you remember me,
your sister Fiona?

Fiona.

He's destroyed with the excitement.

At least he'll sleep warm tonight.