FAQ

The five Mundy sisters -- Kate (Meryl Streep), Maggie (Kathy Burke), Christina (Catherine McCormack), Agnes (Brid Brennan), and Rose (Sophie Thompson) -- find their simple life in 1930's Ireland disrupted when their brother Jack (Michael Gambon), an aging priest who went native during his stint in Africa, comes home. The story is told through the eyes of Christina's love child, Michael (Darrell Johnston).

Dancing at Lughnasa is based on a 1990 play of the same name by Irish writer Brian Friel. The play was adapted for the screen by Irish playwright Frank McGuinness.

Also spelled "Lughnasadh" and "Lúnasa", it was a harvest festival held on August 1 in pre-Christian Ireland in honour of the god Lugh. It was a time for contests of strength and skill and a favored time for contracting marriages and winter lodgings. However, the bonfires seen in the film would be more appropriate for Beltane (May 1).

The official reason given to her was that student enrollment was falling, but the true reason for her being fired was because of her brother Jack. As a Catholic priest, Jack went to Africa to convert the natives and wound up being converted to their pagan beliefs, "going native" as it were. Jack had become a stain on the Church's reputation, therefore the Church disassociated itself with him and with his family.

The day before Christina's boyfriend Gerry (Rhys Ifans) is to leave for Spain, he and Michael kick a rugby ball around together. Michael asks him not to go, but Gerry explains that he's a soldier now and must fight. Jack comes out of the house in full military chaplain regalia and, in an African ritual, they exchange hats -- Gerry's straw hat and Jack's plumed African ceremonial cap. That evening, the family discusses how they are going to manage with the loss of Kate's teaching job. Aggie and Rose learn that the opening of a knitwear factory in the village has just killed off their source of extra income by hand knitting gloves. Aggie reminds Rose of their "secret." That night, they slip away together after secretly blessing everyone in the family by sprinkling holy water and saying their names. Adult Michael (Gerard McSorley) then narrates: "We never saw them again. They vanished without a trace. Years later, I learned that they ended as chattels on the streets of London, scraping a living together, dying alone. My Uncle Jack lasted as long as he could, believing to the end in the earth and stars. My father did go to Spain and was wounded. My Aunt Kate said it would put an end to his dancing days...maybe it did. My mother got a job at a factory. She hated it all her life, and my father wrote to her...occasionally. Through it all, Aunt Maggie tried to keep the house going. She tried to pretend that nothing had happened, but the family changed forever. My aunt Kate was inconsolable...inconsolable. Me, I was waiting to become a man, waiting to get away, just to go away. But the memory of that summer was like a dream to me, a dream of music that is both heard and imagined, that seems to be both itself and its own echo. When I remember it, I think of dancing, dancing as if language had surrendered to movement, dancing as if language no longer existed because words were no longer necessary." The final scene shows Michael's kite getting away from him, just as the movie began.

There are several differences between play and film, most notably: (1) The play takes place entirely in and around the Mundy house, while the film adds scenes set at Lough Anna, Ballybeg and the Back Hills, (2) In the play, it is implied that Kate, Aggie, and Chrissie do not approve of Danny Bradley, but whatever happens between him and Rose on Lough Anna and the Back Hills makes Rose happy; not frightened, as is seen in the film, and (3) The play is a memory play, in which Michael looks back on the events of a childhood summer. His childhood character does not appear onstage, but is invisible and addressed by the other characters.