Sarah Harte: McGahern leaves us pondering what we have lost and gained

These are the men and women who took the boat in droves in the second half of the 20th century, to find work, and to flee institutional abuse

A scene from 'That They May Face The Rising Sun'.

How times have changed. Director and West Cork man Pat Collins’s film That They May Face the Rising Sun, adapted from John McGahern’s powerful novel, is set in early 1980s rural Ireland, but it may as well be a different country. Watching the film is like stepping through a looking glass. It will scoop you up like a warm hug, and at other times it will break your heart.

Joe and Kate Ruttledge, a writer and an artist, have come back from London to live by the lake. Ireland is economically broken, and the cultural and political power of the unholy nexus of State and Church is beginning to wane.