Mo Cuishle
Mo Cuishle is a term of endearment in Ireland, meaning ‘My Heart, My Blood, My Darling’.
The film is based on true events. It’s a story about family, loss and reunion, mystically linking the Famine times in Ireland to the present day and it’s set in Ireland, America and Bermuda.
A Ghost Story – the Irish Famine – Have we Lived Before?
In January 2012 in Boston, USA, Fleur is saying farewell to her friend, Saoirse, who is returning to Ireland to live in a dilapidated Workhouse, with her husband Liam and their daughter Bridget. Fleur is a psychic and has a vision during dinner of a young girl who claims to be Bridget’s sister. It’s puzzling as Fleur knew about Bridget’s stillborn twin Aisling, yet this young soul kept saying her name was Maeve. Deciding she’s drunk too much wine, Fleur shakes off the vision and hugs her friend a warm goodnight and bon voyage.
Ireland in 1847, two young sisters are headed to a Workhouse in town as the famine engulfs the country. The emaciated girls are taken in and offered help in exchange for work, however, they look too sick to survive for long. As the Workhouse staff discuss what they should write down in the register – are the girls Catholics or Protestants? – one sister is leaving this world for the next. In other flashbacks, the girls went to the local market with their parents before the deadly Famine arrived. On another day, the sisters played with their mother’s wedding bonnet while their mother was in tears watching their father leave them to go and find work in Dublin City.
It’s February 2012, and the family from Boston arrive to move into the Workhouse in the West of Ireland. Within weeks, they discover it’s haunted after several strange happenings bother them. A bunch of violets stirs memories, affecting Bridget deeply. A medallion is found by Saoirse in the garden and later it’s mysteriously moved and placed on Bridget’s pillow. A ghostly girl is spotted roaming the woods. The radio plays loudly by itself in the early morning, freaking out the family cat.
Bridget was born with a caul or veil,
meaning she’s blessed with second sight
and able to perceive spirits.
One summer night, Bridget hears a pretty singing voice coming from the garden and she’s compelled to investigate. It’s there that she comes face to face with the ghost. Just after this reunion between the living and the dead, an awful discovery is made by the workers building a new house on a plot of land, directly opposite the Workhouse.
Extracts From the Book: ‘My Heart, My Blood, My Darling.
“Aisling had looked as if she may be only sleeping, as the doctor tried everything that he knew to bring her to life. She was gone before she was born. The joyful occasion of her twins’ birth was deluged in grief.”
“God must have wanted Ma for Heaven. Ma told Maeve once, when a cousin of theirs had died, that he’d gone because God needed some more angels. Maeve thought Heaven must be awful empty to need so many angels.”
“Cara’s heart was now shrivelled to the size of a pea, locked with locks too many and too strong for anyone to penetrate its walls. She gently untied the red ribbon that held her sister’s hair in a ponytail and tied it gently around her wrist. If I have to search all heaven and earth, I will find you again, Maeve, be sure of it, I will!”