The Claddagh Heart

Early 20th century Ireland is on the brink of independence and families are split as tensions
rises between loyalists and revolutionaries. A man (Ned) loses everything in the fight for his
country, including his wife, who takes their children away because she does not support his
activity in the IRA.

Fast-forward 10 years. A beautiful woman comes into Ned’s life quite unexpectedly. She takes
a liking to him and, as soon as he warms up to her, Ned’s wife returns out of the blue and says
he has a duty to raise his sons. He decides that the proper thing for a man to do is to take care
of his family, but he cannot resist the passions of this new girl, Anabelle. He continues an affair
with her until the jealousy is unbearable, and Anabelle demands he make a choice.

He chooses his wife for his children’s sake. Anabelle disappears, and Ned becomes terribly ill.
His wife decides to leave with the children once again since she assumes Ned will die soon.
She leaves him to die, but he doesn’t. He recovers with the help of the barmaid Mary and he
realizes how horrible a mistake he has made. He decides he was more worried about what
people would say if he didn’t take care of his wife than he was about leaving Anabelle. The guilt
overcomes him and he travels to find his true love.

After a year of searching, he discovers where she lives. However, he also discovers that,
though her mother is Irish, her father is English. With the memories of war still fresh in his mind,
he can’t help but detest part of her for being English. He returns home without ever having
spoken to Anabelle.

He becomes a drunk and sustains a horrible leg injury after passing out in the street one night
and getting run over by a horse cart. Ned has finally hit rock bottom. The local hospital doesn’t
have the resources to treat him, so he is transferred to a larger one. He is miserable and so
foul-tempered that his nurse asks to be reassigned. In walks Anabelle.

At first she refuses to treat him, furious that he’d left her for his wife, but he eventually explains
what happened in her absence. She shows him dozens of letters she wrote to him but was too
proud or too scared to send. He sees the love in her eyes and realizes that he doesn’t care
about her nationality. As soon as Ned’s leg heals, Anabelle asks to be transferred to the local
hospital so she can be closer to Ned, and they get married.