The Legend of Molly Maguire

In the early 1800s, when the Catholics in Ireland are being persecuted, an unsung heroine emerges, a feisty young lass who must forego her choice between two suitors to seek justice from a corrupt English Baron and his son for the murders of her parents and others.

After the Great Famine scattered the Irish around the world, they brought with them a secret society called the Molly Maguires that stood up for the rights of their own in places like the factories of Liverpool and the coal mines of Pennsylvania. This covert order had its roots a half century earlier in the brave fight of its namesake against the cruel oppression of the English.

Following a grievance with the local ruling Baron over clamming rights, Molly’s father, Conor, a fisherman and clan leader, goes missing. When Conor’s draft horse returns to their cottage, Molly’s mother, Clodagh, ventures out in the teeming rain and finds his cart hidden in the brush.

Clodagh seeks out the new constable in the town of Sligo, just as residents of a neighboring coastal community are bringing in her husband’s body they recently found washed ashore.

After the wake, Clodagh becomes ill and passes away. Molly takes over her mother’s class, tutoring a handful of youths from the clan, an act strictly forbidden to Catholics at the time. Among her students is a ruggedly handsome suitor named Seamus.

There’s more trouble when another of her students, young Master Timothy, goes missing, and his father is found hanged from a tree next to his burned out still. When Molly discovers Timothy has been interned in one of the new workhouses for the poor, she and Seamus break in to free him. She’s seen by one of the guards, is arrested and must stand trial for her freedom.

Oddly, Seamus disappears, and Molly’s life becomes even more complicated when her wealthy Protestant solicitor confesses his love for her. But first Molly must find a way to avoid prison and seek vengeance upon the Baron and his son, before she can settle her affairs of the heart.

In contrast to the cruel British persecution, the screenplay depicts Ireland’s quaint traditions, colloquialisms and humor in scenes that transport the audience from a quaint country cottage nestled in the Irish highlands to medieval castles, Celtic Games, Buckingham Palace and the Cliffs of Moher. This epic tale begs for authentic period costumes and a rousing music score.