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A look at the work of the Redemptorist Order of the Catholic Church. The film emphasises both the negative and positive aspects of the Redemptorists on Irish life. It begins with the annual Clonard Novena in Belfast and traces the history and origins of the Redemptorism in Ireland both North and South. The order was founded by St. Alphonsus Ligouri in Italy in 1732 and only arrived in Ireland from Europe one hundred years later preaching the Four Great Truths of Death, Truth, Heaven and Hell, using powerfully frightening rhetoric to in its campaign against sin and transgression, The film asserts that the Redemptorist Order exerted a powerful hold on Irish people into the 20th Century - becoming a central aspect of Catholic life into the 1960s. The film shows how the order founded confraternities around the island – the Limerick Confraternity being one of the largest in Europe. These were run with militaristic precision, and exerted a significant power and influence on church and state – a power that the documentary suggests was used for both “good and evil” over the poor and abandoned of the country. The film goes on to explore the role of the Austrian priest Joseph Prost who wrote about class divisions between the clergy and the laity since the Great Famine and lead the order to operate upon principles of social equality. The Redemptorists’ encouraged the use of the Irish language in their rural work – a factor that lead to disputes within the Catholic hierarchy. Opposing the practice of church collections, they set about on missions which attempted to identify the social needs of ordinary people, setting up credit unions, a factor that lead to the alleged pogroms of Jewish moneylenders in Limerick in 1904. The film explores the divisions between the Redemptorists – whose work with the poor lead to their discreet support of Republican movements in the struggle for independence against Britain - and the larger Catholic Church, which believed that the conflict should be addressed through purely democratic means. In the first years of the Free State, the Redemptorists assumed a stance against the drinking and manufacture of alcohol. In 1931, a young Redemptorist from Árainn, Stiofan Ó Conghaile, attempted to end the manufacture of poteen in Connemara. The film goes on to describe the Redemptorist’s battle against immoral sexuality and the negative influence this on young men in rural communities. The last section of the programme deals with the influence of the Redemptorists on the Northern Irish conflict, and outlines how – mainly through the Redemptorist Clonard Monastery in Belfast – the order brought itself directly to the concerns of ordinary people once again, this time in ministering to the besieged Catholic Nationalist community who received little or no support from the Catholic Church. This lead to the prominent role of Redemptorist Fr. Alex Reid in bringing together both sides of the Northern Ireland communities for the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The documentary makes extensive use of archive footage. Contributors: An tAthair Breandan McConvery, historians Tim Pat Coogan and Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Dr. Muireann Ní Bhroichain, An tAthair Eamonn Ó Confhacla, Pádraig Ó Dálaigh, President Mary McAleese, Frank Prendergast, Tony Bromwell, Fr. John J. O’Riordan, An tAthair Pádraig Ó Dónaill, Gearóid Robinson, Fr. Alex Reid, Fr. Clement McManus, Clara Dunne.

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