Plot: Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children, Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice, make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages. Although a sympathetic judge assures Desmond that when his financial situation reverses, he will be able to get his children back; money is hard to come by. During that time, Evelyn and her brothers suffer the abuses of living in orphanages while Desmond struggles to secure finances. Now he must battle the courts to get his children back.

Tags: 1950s, based on true story, boarding school, catholic, catholic church, catholic school, cemetery, character name in title, child abuse, child witness, children's home, christmas, christmas eve, corporal punishment, courtroom, custody case, dog racing, drunk driving, drunk scene, family abandonment, fishing, funeral, grandfather, haircut, heart attack, house painter, ireland, last rites, lawyer, live television, loss of father, loss of grandfather, nun, pub, radio broadcasting, rainstorm, reporter, rugby, singer, single father, supreme court, trespassing, unemployment, show all tags.