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That They May Face the Rising Sun

Based on the novel by John McGahern, That They May Face the Rising Sun is a cinematic elegy to a lost Ireland, starring Barry Ward, Anna Bederke and Lalor Roddy.

That They May Face the Rising Sun is set in the early 1980s, just before the communications revolution vastly changed the dynamics of rural communities. Joe and Kate Ruttledge, having returned from London five years earlier to set up home near where Joe grew up, are now deeply embedded in their small lakeside rural community. In this community, neighbours help each other with all the big jobs of the farming calendar - lambing, shearing, saving hay, cutting turf - and visit each other’s houses to share news and talk by the fire. Complex but mutually understood codes of manners determined people’s obligations to each other. For viewers over 30 who grew up in Ireland between the 1940s to 1980s, this film represents that moment before the world of their youth was about to change almost beyond recognition.

Release date:

1 hour, 50 minutes

On TV

Mon 30 Dec 2024 22:30

Credits

Role Contributor
Director Pat Collins
Producer Brendan J Byrne
Producer Tina O'Reilly

Broadcast