In 1946, in an act of defiance against the local clergy, a group of local men in Listowel, Co. Kerry force open the locked gates of the Parish Church.
This action by the townspeople of Listowel never makes it into the newspapers, nor is it recorded anywhere else at the time. In fact, the incident has largely faded from the town’s memory yet has never been forgotten by some.
What was it that drove a normally compliant congregation to challenge the local Parish Priest, Canon Patrick Brennan’s, dominion?
Behind this act of defiance lies the story of a young woman named Peggy McCarthy, whose tragic death in childbirth resulted in the local clergy refusing to let her body lie in the church overnight before her burial. Subsequently, an alliance between Church and State has had a devastating impact on three generations of her family – which persists right up to the present day.
Famed balladeer Séan McCarthy wrote a song, Shame, Love, In Shame, about the young woman at the centre of these events. Peggy was Séan’s younger sister. Years later, Peggy’s story also inspired local Listowel playwright Tony Guerin to write the play ‘Solo Run’.
Narrated by Conor Keane