Arracht

available from 7:00PM ET on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17

Ireland, 1845 on the eve of The Great Hunger. Colmán Sharkey, a fisherman, a father, a husband, takes in a stranger at the behest of a local priest. Patsy, a former soldier in the Napoleonic wars arrives just ahead of ‘the blight,’ a disease that eventually wipes out the country’s potato crop, contributing to the death and displacement of millions. 

As the crops rot in the fields, Colmán, his brother and Patsy travel to the English Landlord’s house to request a stay on rent increases that Colmán predicts will destroy his community. His request falls on deaf ears and that night Patsy goes on a murderous rampage killing five people including the Landlord and Colmán’s brother, Seán.

Two years later and millions of Irish have either died or been displaced. Colmán, blamed for the murders and on the run is unable to prevent the death of his loved ones. Isolated on a rocky island he is driven mad with the trauma of his loss and lives a feral existence in a realm between life and death.

After a failed suicide attempt, Colmán encounters a young girl, Kitty, abandoned on the mainland. In an attempt to help her he is injured in an attack and they are both stranded on the island. They nurse each other back from the brink and a life saving friendship develops. But Colmán’s respite is short lived when Patsy, now in the employment of an English bounty hunter returns to find him.

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