This Other Eden 1959

The film opens with a tense prologue set during the Irish War of Independence. On a deserted road, Mick Devereaux and Commandant Jack Carberry of the IRA appear to negotiate a cease-fire with a British officer. Carberry steps away, and hidden Black and Tan soldiers open fire, leaving Carberry mortally wounded. As he dies, Devereaux kneels beside him, and Carberry’s dying plea to “see to everything” lingers in the air, a somber tether to events that will unfold years later.

Years pass, and Ballymorgan’s local power broker, a Gombeen man named McRoarty, attends a meeting of the Carberry Memorial Committee. His daughter Maire [Audrey Dalton] McRoarty has just returned from England, carrying the weight of family history and a town still wrestling with its memory. On the train, Maire encounters Crispin Brown, an Englishman who hopes to make Ballymorgan his home; [Leslie Phillips] as Crispin Brown is eager to put down roots in the Irish countryside. A grand house named Kilgarrig rises on the horizon as the town-readies an auction, while preparations for a statue to commemorate Carberry churn alongside talk of the memorial’s meaning.

At the hotel, Maire introduces Crispin to the locals, where tensions flare. Clannery, a blunt local, resents the Englishman, while Conor Heaphy [Norman Rodway] receives mixed signals from the men, and McRoarty senses the danger of any cross-border romance. The Canon [Hilton Edwards], a figure of authority and tradition, hesitates when Conor confesses his wish to become a priest. In a pivotal moment, Devereaux reveals to Conor that he is the illegitimate son of Carberry, a revelation that stirs anger and resentment in Conor as he processes the truth about his own origins.

The statue to honor Carberry is unveiled, and its abstract design divides the crowd, garnering derision from some, with Crispin among the most vocal critics. In a dramatic turn, Crispin confesses surprising kinship: his own father was the English officer Carberry had intended to meet that night, and he had resigned his post in solidarity with the IRA. The crowd’s anger shifts toward Crispin, who is immediately blamed for the catastrophe. On the hotel balcony, Crispin seeks to calm the crowd by praising Ireland and vowing to fund a new statue, while Conor tries to step forward and reveal the true culpability, only to be restrained by Maire and Devereaux.

The town’s mood thickens as a journalist, MacPherson, is called in by McRoarty to investigate the uproar. Photographers descend, but the townspeople deny any riot and deny Conor’s involvement. The Canon reassures Conor that his vocation can still be fulfilled, even if priesthood remains out of reach for the moment.

As the aftermath continues to ripple through Ballymorgan, Crispin Hat’s pursuit of Kilgarrig succeeds, while Clannery blames a faulty electrical cable for triggering the explosion near the statue and the presumed chaos that followed. Meanwhile, McRoarty and Maire haggle over the idea of Maire returning to England, a question that feels charged with the town’s memory and its future. If Crispin still seeks Maire’s hand, he must confront the demands of her father and the social maze of Ballymorgan. The dowry becomes a practical leverage, and with cunning negotiation, Crispin secures the dowry and Maire’s consent to marriage, sealing a new chapter for the couple as they navigate the legacy of Carberry, the fault lines between Irish and English identities, and the fragile hope of reconciliation in a town shaped by its past.

Throughout, the atmosphere rests on the tension between memory and modernity, between the weight of republican sacrifice and the personal choices that redefine family ties. The ensemble cast—[Geoffrey Golden] as McRoarty, [Audrey Dalton] as Maire McRoarty, [Leslie Phillips] as Crispin Brown, [Norman Rodway] as Conor Heaphy, [Hilton Edwards] as The Canon, [Harry Brogan] as Clannery, [Ria Mooney] as Mother Superior, and [Isobel Couser] as Mrs. O’Flaherty—drives a story that is at once intimate and political, personal and public. The film remains faithful to its quiet, measured tone, carefully balancing dialogue with quiet observational scenes that reveal character motive through gesture, choice, and consequence. In the end, what began as a communal act of remembrance evolves into a personal decision about belonging, legacy, and the uncertain road to a peaceful future.

“see to everything”