Charlie Roberts

No one expects much from Christy Brown, a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family. Though Christy is a spastic quadriplegic and essentially paralyzed, a miraculous event occurs when, at the age of 5, he demonstrates control of his left foot by using chalk to scrawl a word on the floor. With the help of his steely mother — and no shortage of grit and determination — Christy overcomes his infirmity to become a painter, poet and author.

Dublin; June 16, 1904. Stephen Dedalus, who fancies himself as a poet, embarks on a day of wandering about the city during which he finds friendship and a father figure in Leopold Bloom, a middle-aged Jew. Meanwhile, Bloom's day, illuminated by a funeral and an evening of drinking and revelry that stirs paternal feelings toward Stephen, ends with a rapprochement with Molly, his earthy wife.

Thomas Crimmins is a new warder, or guard, in an Irish prison. He is young, naive, and idealistic, determined to serve his country by his part in meting out justice to criminals. His superior, Regan, however, realizes that even prisoners are human beings, and Regan is sick of the eye-for-an-eye attitude that leads the state to execute condemned men, or "quare fellows." Crimmins begins to see that not all is black and white in his new world, and when he becomes involved with Kathleen, the wife of one of the condemned men, his attitude begins to change. When new evidence arises to suggest that Kathleen's husband may not deserve his fate, Crimmins is torn between his duty and his humanity.

A group of unemployed and marginalised souls eke out a meagre living by drawing welfare and occupying a derelict squat in an apocalyptic inner city Dublin. Among the undesirables are a gay man estranged from his wife, a pimp and his prostitute, a destitute businessman, and a paranoiac. The makeshift family soon find themselves subject of intimidation from the State, along with other external forces.

Mixing classroom dramatization with documentary material, interviews with former students who recall barbaric punishments in the name of learning, and a 1932 newsreel of a triumphant Catholic congress in Dublin, this piece poses a challenging and controversial exploration of the Christian Brothers' education system in the 50s.