Posing as a charismatic Catholic priest, a fugitive murderer in 1847 Ireland finds himself dodging the English militia while breaking the law to save his parish from starvation. 

SYNOPSIS:

PILOT SYNOPSIS:

Western Ireland, 1847. MICHAEL MURPHY (26) is an eccentric Irish lad with a gift for chicanery and the bottle. His spirit is free. He is not content with the way of the current world and the hand the Irish has been dealt. He’s also a falsely accused murderer who has just escaped from prison, the English militia hot on his tail.

Call it Irish luck when he finds a dead Catholic priest along the roadside and exchanges clothes with him—a clerical disguise to freedom to America. But an altercation with a bully to save an eccentric pipe smoking crone named ROSE (50) brings suspicion on him as the escaped convict and he is forced for the time being to pose as the long-awaited pastor at St. Brendan’s parish.

As a priest he must hear confessions, and he unwittingly hears the intimate confession of his long lost lover, KATHLEEN (24). Although an atheist, Michael is post-Catholic conscious-stricken by his unforgivable sacrilege, and decides to take his chances and hop a “coffin ship” to Canada. However, when he learns that his confidant Rose has been murdered, he changes his mind. He wants retribution.

Then, overnight, a blight blackens the potato crops. With his parish starving, he further postpones his flight to freedom and, at the risk of getting hanged, vows to save them by doing what he does best—breaking the law.

THE ROGUE OF CONNEMARA