Original subtitles

[Celtic music playing]

[waves lapping]

[seagull cries]

[boat engine humming]

[priest] Lord of all spirit and all flesh

- in whose ever embrace - [baby crying]

all creatures live, and whatsoever world

or condition they be.

I beseech thee to pull her hand to his name,

and dwell into the every need thou knowest.

[baby crying continues]

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.

[baby crying continues]

[steam hissing]

[machinery chugging]

[men talking indistinctly]

[shouting over noise] Where's father?

Where's father?

He's in the pub.

[patrons chatter indistinctly]

[dishes, glasses clinking]

[man] It's the little sprout again.

[barmaid] Poor creature.

[man] As pale as a fish's belly.

And those eyes.

[barmaid] She's only lost in the world,

that's all. And what would you be

in a strange land without a mother's touch?

[man #2] A drunkard.

[barmaid] You're already that.

Jim, wake up, will ya?

It's your daughter.

[Jim] How are you, girl?

[barmaid] She's worn out, Jim.

Open your eyes.

She looks as if she was raised in a tin box.

[man] Fresh air. That's the ticket.

Little sprout like her breathing the poison fumes

in the air of this town.

You have to take her to the country.

[Jim] There's no work to be had at home.

I'm never going back to the island.

That's done.

[barmaid] A lemon squash for you, dear.

[man #2] It isn't a place to be raising a girl around here.

[Jim] I do my best.

[barmaid] You try, bless ya.

Why not send her off to her grandfather's place, then?

You'd like that. Wouldn't you, love?

You'd like that.

Living with the old people.

[boat engine humming]

[seagull squawking]

[cow moos]

Grandfather!

Fiona!

We were expecting you later.

Father had to 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.

And your father and his brother the same.

All but for Jamie.

He's the only dark one.

You better not mention anything about Jamie

in front of grandmother.

She's got the tea ready for you now.

[Tess] Oh, look at your arms, dear.

Like sticks, they are.

Eat up, now.

[Hugh] It's the sea air she's needing.

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

But the ones here is nothin' compared to those laid on the island.

Oh, you and that island.

It's true enough, though.

That old cow only give half the milk she gave on Roan Inish.

Look, what's done is done. There's no use moanin' over it.

Why did we have to leave?

It was the young people, dear.

Like your father and his brothers.

They were restless on the island,

and then came the war and jobs across the sea.

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

[Hugh] Ah, city indeed.

Nothing but noise and dirt

and people that's lost their senses.

Couldn't tell the difference

between a rip tide and a rain drop

if you shoved their face in the water. [chuckles]

But you and grandmother...

Oh, no.

We couldn't start up 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.

You see a lighthouse on a long, flat island?

I think I do.

[Hugh] And down there, to your right,

a great island of dark hills.

And there's a wee green bit of an isle lying between them.

She sees it, Tess.

Ah, 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.

[Hugh] That's Roan Inish, girl.

Island of the seals.

And 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.

So, you've moved back to the west.

Are you pleased?

[Fiona] Oh, yes, 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.

[scoffs] Too fast for me.

Which is good a young fella in a curragh

as ever I've seen.

Oh, now, the love of the sea is a sickness.

And you two will come to grief for it.

Eat.

She's seen Roan Inish, Eamon.

- On her first look. - Is that so?

Do 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.

You always come back with a full net.

When the rest of them are scared to fish it.

Why are they scared?

[Tess] Eamon.

Um...

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, come on, do your duty by those cakes, Eamon.

They won't keep.

Your grandfather's already filled his gullet.

[tea pouring]

[strikes match]

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.

A bit of the rebel in him.

Though times weren't as hard on the island

as they were 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.

[Hugh VO] And it was their language and their ways

that you had to learn there.

Or else.

[teacher, students] I seek. You...

[Hugh VO] It was a new schoolmaster

in school one year.

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

[whispers indistinctly]

[Hugh VO] 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.

[students chanting] Eject! Eject! Eject!

Eject! Eject! Eject!

[Hugh VO] Sean Michael stuck it for as long as he could.

For he had the 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

[shouting in Irish]

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.

Now, 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 kill 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 and the wild waves

and the hard sky above you."

And wasn't it his first right trip out with his father,

that a fierce storm from the north blew over them.

Sean Michael, his father, his brothers,

his uncles and his cousins. Four boats in all.

And it took them in its terrible grip

and lifted them high and turned them over

and slapped them back down in 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 he cried out

[Hugh VO] and he beat the water with his legs and arms

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

It was a full day later

when people gathering muscles on the strand found him.

And was some was even afraid to touch him.

It was women, mostly, soft hearted as they are.

The boy was more dead than alive.

Cold as ice to the touch.

And there wasn't a fire in Ireland

could bring the blood of life back into him.

This was 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.

And 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 at the hearth.

He woke to their faces above him.

All women and girls.

"Is this heaven, then?", he said.

[laughing] "No, lad," said the woman of the house.

"It's only Tech Duin."

Now, Tech Duin is the islands where the people thought

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

[laughs] And so, Sean Michael believed

he had drowned and come to the hereafter.

"It was a seal that brought me here," he told them.

[Hugh VO] "I was sinking under.

Destroyed by the effort

of keeping my head above the swell.

And a body, a 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."

[water rushing]

And 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.

And he was saved by a seal?

And two cows.

And a woman that had her wits about her.

It's a wonderful story.

Some thing 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, Hugh.

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

What happened to Sean Michael, your great-grandfather?

Jailed by the English.

Died in prison, a man of fifty.

Smuggling arms to the Fenians, he was.

Oh, that's enough for now.

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

[sighing] Aye.

Sweet dreams, dear.

Superstitious old man.

[metal poker clangs]

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

Mary at the foot and Brigid at the head.

[metal poker clangs]

And may the eight brightest angels

in the city of Grace preserve this house

and all its people until the coming of the day.

[whispers] The light.

[tin kettle, mugs clinking]

Out into the sun with you, now.

You'll find him below on the strand.

Just follow the path across.

[seagull cries]

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 just kept stirring the tar in this bucket, here.

I'd love it.

In the olden times,

people used cow hide on their curraghs.

Then it was calico. And now we make do with canvas.

The tar is what it always was.

[seagull cries]

Would you like some tea, dear?

Yes, please.

She sent down an extra mug for you.

[tin clinking]

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.

Ah, there's plenty of things could be taken for a light in the dark.

And no telling how far off the light be.

You just want me to forget about Jamie.

We will none of us forget him, dear.

But life goes on.

I 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.

A slow, terrible dream that you watch.

Can't stop it.

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

It was only your father and brother ashore.

And wee Jamie, sleeping in his cradle.

- In his cradle? - [Hugh] Aye.

Pulled up on the beach.

[waves lapping]

[seagull squawks]

[seagulls screeching]

[seagulls screeching continues]

[echoing] Jamie!

[echoing] Wait!

[echoing] Help!

[gears cranking]

[thunder rumbles]

[thunder rumbles louder]

[rain whooshing]

[echoing] Jamie!

[echoing] Jamie!

[rain pounding]

[bubbling]

Jamie, he called. We're coming, boy.

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

The sea had taken him.

Poor, wee Jamie.

It was angry with us for leaving Roan Inish.

Mind that tar, love.

Or it'll be stiffer than an old man on a winter's night.

[fire crackling]

He could still be out there.

Jamie? Alive?

And cows could have wings, dear.

Cows could have wings.

[seagulls calling]

[Eamon] You see this?

It was a seal, rent it open.

They're terrible rascals for stealing fish.

There was one staring at me from the rock when I came in.

Maybe he's fell in love.

You've got to be careful, though.

'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 about Jamie.

About when he was taken.

Did he tell you the rumors?

What rumors?

There is them who claim to have seen him.

Little Jamie, sailing the seas in his cradle boat.

What do they say he looks like?

They say he has grown into a fine little gossoon.

Sitting in the stern of his cradle,

like a captain in his ship.

Always, there's creatures about him.

Seals swimming in the water.

A great crowd of seagulls squawking overhead.

If you call out or try to come closer,

he vanishes in a great splashing of water

and flapping of wings.

Like a phantom, they say.

Where do they see him?

Coming back from the far side of the islands,

Close to Roan Inish.

- Grandfather! - Shh!

Don't let on I told you nothing!

What is it?

Can I go out with you sometimes? In your boat?

It'll be a few days before the tide is right.

Then, will you?

Well...

We'll have to ask your grandmother, first.

She won't have you out on a boat

unless the day is fine.

[birds singing]

Grandmother!

I've lost track, is this Roan Inish?

Quiet now, and you will see something.

See that little fella, there?

It's his first year at sea.

He's the one. He's the one that stared at me

on the boat coming over.

I'm sure he is!

You scared them away with all your screeching.

[Fiona] He was the one I saw.

He really did remember me.

Hide your face, then. Or he'll be after taking you for a wife.

Don't scare the child.

Fiona's never scared. Are you, girl?

His name is Jax.

And how do you know that?

It just is, that's all.

- There it is. - Roan Inish?

Aye.

Isn't it beautiful?

Do you remember, Fiona?

That was your house there, at that end.

Tess and I were next door.

And ours was the one beyond.

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

Don't wander too far.

[birds singing]

[creaks]

[footsteps crunching hay]

[birds chirping]

[creaks]

[blows]

[cracking]

[seagull cries]

I wish you could talk to me.

[waves rush]

[Hugh] Fiona!

Better be going while the tide's still with us.

Do you miss it greatly?

Roan Inish?

Ah, it's only a place, I suppose.

Mostly, I miss the way of life.

Being surrounded by the sea, whole family about you.

- I'm moving back. - [chuckles]

When I'm a man.

You'll be a sorry sight out there on your own.

Haunting the island, all on your lonesome.

Oh, no, I'll have a wife.

But will she have you, Eamon?

Not many women, these days,

see much romance in hard work and solitude.

I'm moving back just the same.

I remember the evenings, best.

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

would be laying out food.

Your father smoking and drying his feet by the fire.

Then you, Fiona, and poor, wee Jamie,

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. The footprint of a little boy.

Why didn't you show it to us, then?

A wave destroyed it.

Fiona, there's all sorts of things

can look like a footprint on 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 bit of cleaning.

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

There'll be birds nesting in the thatch and the 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 in everything.

Blowing 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 have only the picture in my mind

of your poor little brother,

floating away.

The only real tragedy in life,

is young people passing 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 pinching creature, Flynn.

Fiona, darling. You have me purse.

[woman whispers indistinctly]

Is this the granddaughter, then?

It is.

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

Mind your own business, Flynn.

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

I could get him.

I'll not have a young girl

exposed to the layabouts

that spend their days in that pub.

You call this fresh, do you?

You ought to be ashamed.

She's the original tough customer. Old Tess.

- [bell jingles] - [door opens, closes]

What's "dark ones"?

[Flynn] Hey?

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.

Tadgh be your father's first cousin.

Once in a generation,

the Coneellys spit out a dark one.

Like me brother, Jamie?

Aye. Tadgh would be the one ahead of him.

Will he know me?

Ah, 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.

[shoes click on stones]

Hello.

I'm Fiona. Fiona Coneelly.

You know my father.

I know you.

You do?

You're after something?

I am.

[splats]

It's as plain as day.

Will I find it?

I have no idea of the future.

But I can see the past quite well.

And the present, if the weather's clear.

Leave off, Tadgh. You're frightening the wee girl.

She's not easily frightened, this one.

Am I right?

Do you know why I am dark?

'Cause his brain's full of shoe polish and it's leaking...

- That's enough out of you! - Easy, Tadgh.

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.

It was 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.

[Tadgh VO] He sat alone at all the family gatherings.

One day, walking about the other islands,

He saw a thing his eyes could scarce believe.

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

Clubbed to death and made into coats and 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 and 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'd never seen a woman so lovely in all his life.

[peeling]

[Tadgh VO] Now, it was said

that 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 and 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.

[footsteps approach]

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.

And there was much shaking of heads

when Liam married the stranger.

She hardly spoke at all, and when she did,

her Irish was queer sounding.

More ancient than their grandfather's grandfather's.

And when they asked him where he'd found her,

with her great dark eyes, and her wild black hair,

he'd only say Skellig.

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,

looking out at the seals and the birds.

And 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.

And before long, she was asking him

to build a cradle for their first born.

It must be made with 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 looking thing.

More of a ship than a cradle.

And carved with shells and fish and seaweed.

[baby crying]

[Tadgh VO] And whenever the day was calm,

then they put the babe afloat on the water.

Rocking on the sea,

with the ripple of the waves against the hull for a lullaby.

Now 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.

She spent long hours

looking out at that that she'd 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 all.

[Tadgh VO speaking Irish]

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.

But it's eyes, 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. A fear.

And 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 Skellig.

Watching them.

[whispers] Watching her children.

And the cradle was passed down 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 the black hair

that the selkie had left in their blood.

And these dark ones were most at home at sea.

Great sailors and fisher folk, everyone of them.

Like Tadgh, here,

he's an admiral in the Royal Navy. [laughs]

Fiona! Get out from there!

Your grandfather's ready.

Welcome back, Fiona Coneelly.

We've been waiting.

Is he mad?

Tadgh?

No, 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 would do well to avoid.

Did he upset you?

Oh, no. He's very pleasant.

You don't have to mind anything he says to you.

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

Your grandfather and I have to go over

to Kilmurry bank tomorrow to deal with the landlord.

Would you like to come?

[Hugh] Or maybe go with Eamon?

He has to deliver parcels for the postman

among the smaller islands.

I'd like to go with him.

Well, if the weather holds and you dress warm.

He's a troubled soul, Tadgh 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 ready and waiting?

I promise.

And if the weather turns foul?

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

And you remember where there's water?

[sighing] I do.

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

I'll be careful.

All right, then.

[boat engine fades]

[cracking]

[door creaks, closes]

Jamie!

Jamie!

Jamie!

Jamie! Come back!

Jamie!

Jamie!

Jamie!

Jamie!

Jamie, come back to me!

Hey, right on time.

- I saw him today. - Saw who?

Jamie.

Sure you did.

I did!

I went into the cottage and made a fire,

and fell asleep and dreamt of the selkie woman.

And when I woke, I climbed to the top of the island

and I saw that seal.

The little one that's been watching me.

Then I was walking, and he was there.

Jamie, picking flowers. But he ran from me.

Before I could reach him, he was gone.

Gone where?

In his cradle.

He sailed away around the rocks.

There's talk of spirits out here, you know.

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

what happened today. You weren't supposed to be out here.

But if they knew...

They'd only think you were dreaming it all.

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

[sighing] Agreed.

Good evening, Grandfather.

[sighs]

Grandfather?

What's wrong?

Oh. There you are, dear.

What is it?

You know we don't own this house.

Well, the landlord says he got a letter today

from some wealthy people overseas

who want a place to summer in.

A gold mine, he called it. [scoffs]

- Where will you go? - [Tess] Inland, I suppose.

There's nothing available here.

Oh, it was bad enough your grandfather

having to come in off the island,

but to take him away from the sea...

I'm fearing his spirits will fail him.

They can't do that. It isn't fair.

It's the times, darling. [sighs]

After a war, people is always ready

to cut off the past and go forward.

We're just the ones left behind, is all.

Oh, but that's not your worry, Fiona, darling.

Your shoulders are too narrow to be carrying all of that.

[Hugh] It's not lifting at all.

[Eamon] The mackerel won't see us coming, then.

It's not fish I'm talking about.

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

Oh, it will clear, you'll see.

[chuckles] So, you're an expert now, are you?

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

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

It's for the best.

And be careful now, climbing up to the house.

Wait! Your sandwiches!

Grandfather?

Eamon?

[dock creaking]

[seagull cries]

Is that you?

[water splashing]

[water sloshing]

Jax, I can't see you.

[dock creaking]

Jax, is that you?

Are you still there?

Hello! Is anybody out there?

[water sloshes]

What's happening?

Where are we going?

[bell clangs]

[bell clangs]

[bell clanging louder]

[bell on buoy clangs]

Won't you come ashore with me?

[stream trickling]

Jamie!

Jamie! It's me, Fiona!

Jamie!

Jamie!

[crackling]

[clicking, scratching]

[shells clacking]

Jamie!

No, Jamie!

Don't go! It's your sister!

Jamie!

Jamie!

Why must you always run from me?

[crackling]

[Fiona] 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?

[Hugh] Is that you, Fiona?

[Eamon] We saw the fire!

Grandfather!

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

I sat in the boat and it broke free.

And seals just came from out of the fog.

And I looked and looked, but he wasn't there.

There was smoke in the chimney. And Jamie was inside

having tea with a little seal, but then they ran away.

She's gone crazy with some kind of fever.

I'm not sick!

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

In the boat, it drifted.

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

He set a table inside, with shells and all.

You can see it.

Someone is playing tricks on us, and it might be you.

I don't lie.

I believe her, Grandfather.

It's a madness that runs in the family.

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

That's from talking to that Tadgh, isn't it?

He put all this into your head!

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

And get in that curragh.

And I need silence to think up

some likely excuse for your grandmother.

[groans] Seals, indeed.

[water running]

Oh, good morning to you.

Good morning. Where's Grandfather?

He's already into the pub this morning.

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 taking you out yesterday.

Nothing bad happened.

Do you know if Eamon is going out in the motor boat today?

Well, it doesn't matter whether he is or not,

you're not going with him.

There is no need of the bleak ocean

for catching a dose of fresh air, darling.

One day ashore won't kill you now, will it?

No, ma'am.

[seagull cries]

[thunks]

Hello!

So, have you seen him?

Why does he run from me?

Why do you chase him?

He's my brother. He's lost out there.

Eh, he isn't lost at all.

He's just with another branch of the family.

Why are you looking at me like that?

I don't know whether to believe you or not.

People say you're daft.

Eh, they have their reason.

Have you ever seen him?

Have you ever seen Jamie?

Well, I may be daft, girl...

but I'm not blind.

- Fisherman's bend. - [Eamon] Right.

We've got to get them to move back.

I don't see how.

They're going to lose their house here.

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 all.

And didn't you say you plan to move back, yourself?

When I'm a man.

What's to stop you now?

Grandmother will be the hard nugget.

She worries awful about our Grandfather's health.

Carrick bend.

She'd move back for Jamie, though.

In a minute, she would.

Them that is 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?

Eamon, we could start with the cottages, fixing them up.

What do you think?

I will meet you here with Kenny Manion's boat in the morning.

I'll say we're off digging clams.

[Eamon] Pull this for a deal.

Granny's knot.

[engine chugging]

[Eamon] Help me with this, will ya?

Oh, look at that, will ya? [clicks tongue]

It's all our food floating away.

We could row after it.

Not without losing half the day in the chase.

Come on, then.

[Celtic music playing]

Fiona.

Look.

Maybe it could have tipped in the waves and all spilled out.

Do you think that's what happened?

Not for a moment.

And how did the muscle gathering go today?

Oh, we worked wonders with them. Didn't we, Fiona?

It was hard work.

You be careful not to overtax yourself.

Oh, no. It's ever so good for me. Look at my muscles.

Well, it's improved your appetite, anyway.

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

[sighs]

We should plant some things up here.

When we move back, there'll be time.

We better start back, Fiona. The tide won't wait.

[liquid pouring]

Mother?

[cows moo]

[Tess] 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 had no livelihood, only his day's pay.

And seldom he had even that.

Well, they say the only true wealth is land.

Like we own Roan Inish?

For all the good it does us.

Oh, quiet, Hugh.

Jimmy, your father, was my youngest.

And the dearest to me heart.

[laughs] 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, one day,

for the pilgrimage on St. Brigid's day,

which was her named Saint. Sixteen years of age.

Beautiful, strong Christian girl.

Oh, sun or stars never shown on a better one.

I loved her like a daughter, our Brigid.

And father was there?

We had a brilliant run on the 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 try and sell what they had left over.

The first time he laid eyes on Brigid, she was leaving the church.

And 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 for Jimmy, any place off of Roan Inish

might have been Paris, France. [laughs]

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

and 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? [laughs]

And she said she'd love to.

As 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 talk, and then

great with each other immediately,

as happens with the young.

Remember the day she came?

Sitting in the back of the curragh.

And I says to Tess, will you look at the prize

Matt Margonn's brought back from Donegal.

No, she says, for look at how Matt's got his eyes

straight ahead at the island as our Jimmy is rowing.

So as 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 onto Roan Inish.

And the last one to die on it.

He always blamed himself

for bringing her into the life of the sea.

But life can be hard on the mainland, too.

[sighs]

Hmm. Your hands is getting rough.

It's pulling muscles that does it.

[thunder rumbles]

Look at them clouds, will ya?

Gathering for a right blow tonight.

It's going to be hell's own fury

for any creature caught without shelter.

I hope Jamie comes in.

What's that you're saying?

I said I hope Jamie comes in out of the storm.

What can you mean by that?

I've seen him, Grandmother.

Ah, 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.

[scoffs]

I'm not imagining it. I seen him.

He was without a stitch.

And then he nipped away in his little cradle boat.

It's the seals that's been looking after him.

The seals, is it?

It's the truth, Grandmother.

Well, it is.

[clanging and banging]

Oh, dear.

[tin clattering]

There's a box of biscuits up there on the shelf.

Would you get it down for me, love?

Tess.

Fiona, put the chickens in their coop

like a good girl, will ya?

- Is she all right? - What's that you got there?

Well, you don't want to sleep out there

on the cold ground, now, do ya?

Did you look at that sky?

I can read a sky as well as you.

There's a storm coming.

It's not weather to be leaving a small boy outside in.

I knew he wasn't gone from us.

Holy Mother, I felt it all along.

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

And they say the Coneellys is the mad ones.

[clattering]

[grunts]

[Tess] Mind the bedding now, Eamon.

They'll end up damp in those wreaks

without a dousing of sea water.

[thunder rumbles]

Now, what are you staring at, now?

- Shoo! - [seagull squawks]

Now, where's that Fiona got to?

I need her to help gather seaweed for soup.

Tess.

Look what they've done.

Oh, bless us, sweet Jesus.

[wind howling]

[squelching]

Now, this is a soup as only the women of Roan Inish knows 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.

And they learned it from the dark woman. From Nuala.

There's some has told it like that, yes.

If you're out in dirty weather,

it's like the life blood flowing back into your veins.

[grunts]

It's part of the backbone of a whale.

Jamie brought it in.

Well.

You young ones did a great job on this thatch.

It'll have its test in a few minutes.

It's a south wind, Grandfather.

Aye, they're often the most fierce.

[thunder rumbles]

Jamie.

Poor little soul.

[rain pouring]

It's the little seal.

[barking]

[rain fades]

[rain patters]

Do you feel it?

Like snuffing out a candle.

Look!

[Fiona] Jamie!

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

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

[Tess] Don't frighten him, dear.

[Hugh] Heavenly Father! Look at that!

They're telling him to stay!

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

Come on, Jamie, boy.

[barks]

There you go, love!

We'll be staying here, now.

Thank you.

[fire crackling]

Oh, 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 you, Fiona.

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

Your friends that have been looking after you

can see you anytime you like.

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

She gave me her word. I just wouldn't believe it.

Would you look at us, back on Roan Inish.

It's like breathing fresh air

after being three years underground.

Do you remember me, Jamie?

Your sister, Fiona.

Fiona.

[Hugh whispers] Ah, he's destroyed by the excitement.

At least he'll sleep warm tonight.

[Celtic music playing]