The personal and the political collide in Sidney Macartneys's A LOVE DIVIDED, a compelling cinematic rendering of a notorious sectarian conflict in small town Ireland of the 1950s. Transcending the decade's long, carefully tended barriers between Catholic and protestant, young lovers Sheila Kelly (Orla Brady) and Sean Cloney (Liam Cunningham) marry. Their hometown of Fethard-on-Sea is exquisitely rendered by Macartney, giving a moving portrait of the earthy reality of a small town and its residents bound by history, family, and religion. During their Catholic wedding (the couple marries thrice: Catholic, protestant, and civil) the protestant Sheila is made to sign an agreement promising to educate their children in Catholic schools. The idyll of their family farm and passionate devotion to each other is shattered, however, when Sheila suddenly decides to reject the edicts of the demanding Catholic parson, enrolling her daughter in the local protestant school. When Sheila eventually absconds with the children, Sean's strong reaction is pushed to extremes of hysteria and animosity by the town's Catholic community, which orders a protestant boycott. Becoming pawns of age-old animosities, the couple's dispute becomes a political crisis and a devastating allegory for the convoluted religious conflicts of Ireland.
