shoehorned in Nicholas Cage they might have had something.

I kid.

-- and from what I hear, the title change is appropriate: the book focused a lot more on Michael's life than the movie does. The movie is primarily focused on Philomena and Martin Sixsmith and the search.

I'm sure that they had to tighten the story up a bit to fit 100 minutes, but that seems like a bit of a shame - after all, Michael wasn't just the "lost son" because he was sent away to America.

After researching this a bit more online, there are quite a few dramatic parallels between the "fallen woman" in the Fifties and the "fallen man" in the Eighties, and how both generations were affected by societal/religious attitudes about sexuality.

(Maybe the film addresses this, but I don't know.)

Michael died JUST before the first treatments for AIDS came online, and at a time when there was a lot of reticence to talk about the disease (or even homosexuality) publicly. It looks like his funeral in DC was packed with GOP higher-ups, and not one word was said about his cause of death, or his long-time partner.

I hope that my mom's aunt and uncle don't get "Dan Devined" too badly in the movie, but if so, whatever.

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And a story like your family's is exactly why. I remember hear tearing up the picture of the pope on SNL and the ubiquitous condemnation that followed. I think very few people outside Ireland truly understood the depths that the Church had sunk to in abusing their flock at that time, though, and we couldn't possibly understand what led her to do that. I saw a fascinating documentary about the last 30 years or so in Ireland that talked about the O'Connor thing, with her now talking about it in more detail. She said she was just so disgusted at what the Church was doing to the Irish people - between the Magdalene laundries, and pedophile priests, and money scams, etc. - and yet it was still so impregnable as an institution in Ireland and nobody outside the country was willing to listen. She liked the pope himself, but had zero respect for the institution of the Church and felt she had to make a dramatic gesture to get someone, anyone to pay attention to what was happening in Ireland.

In hindsight, obviously, I wish we all had listened a little closer and examined the Church in America and elsewhere as well. Appalling. Sort of removes the mystery around how Ireland, a country that once was one of the Church's most reliable sources of missionaries, is now one of its most disaffected and disillusioned groups. I'll definitely have to see the movie now. All the best to you and your family.

--
"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats

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It's not really "my" story to share... Mostly it came up in our family again around Thanksgiving because this movie is coming out.

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Don't really know if its right to say "cool story". That sounds too trite. But I do thank you for sharing it with us.

Thanks for sharing. And I'm definitely seeing it now. :-)

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You have the Irish church selling babies in the fifties, the self-denying powerful republican in the 80s dying of AIDS... And Judy Dench in the starring role.

Thanks for sharing.

I will for sure be seeing this.

Movie spoilers? I guess?

I only met Michael once, in 1989, in DC. He was chief White House counsel in the GHWB administration, (or something like that) and he got us ALL the best DC tours. I met like 30 Senators and congressmen. I rode some underground congressional 2-seat tram thing with Jesse Helms.

(Only today do I appreciate the irony of riding an Underground Railroad with Sen. Helms. In my defense, I was 12 or so. 5 years later I would have been ALL OVER that.)

My mom knew Michael was gay, but her family kind of denied/ignored that, and he was very closeted. I mean, it was the Eighties and he was a GOP lawyer in the bush administration.

He died of "heart problems" in 1995, when I was at ND. My mom told me flat-out what had really happened.

A few years later, Mr Sexsmith contacted the family on Philomena's behalf, and they looked for confirmation/clues in Marge's journals.

Back in 1952, Marge had gone to Ireland to adopt an orphan. I don't think anyone put it together that the girls working at the orphanage were the ACTUAL MOTHERS. She wanted a girl- and found one- but Michael (born Anthony) kissed Mary on the cheek as they were leaving and Marge decided to adopt them both.

Philomena was 18 when she had Anthony, and when she'd started to show her parents sent her to the convent. In exchange for being allowed to stay there, the girls had to pay £100, which she didn't have - or stay for three years and work in the laundry or some such. They also had to sign a document stating that the kids could be sent to live with a more suitable family at any time. (A contract signed on pain of eternal damnation, of course.)

The Irish Church was, in short, selling these kids to wealthy Americans. They'd market through parishes in the US - priests would tell US families that there were needy Irish kids they could help. (Of course, there's the matter of the £1500 fee.)

One day Philomena gets back from work in the laundry and the nuns say "Welp, we sent your 3 year old to America. You signed the contract, right? You may never tell anyone that any of this transpired."

For years, Philomena was begging the nuns to tell her where her boy went. They would not. She got married and had more kids.

In the Eighties, Michael went back to Ireland, found the orphanage, and asked the nuns about his mother. They wouldn't say a word. Even though Philomena lived a mile or two away.

In the Nineties, when Michael knew he was dying, he went back and asked if he could be buried at the convent. His grave marker is basically a set of clues to help Philomena find him if she ever wanted to.

Martin Sixsmith traveled continents looking for Anthony Lee/Michael Hess, and he and Philomena Lee found Michael's grave just down the road from her house, a couple years after he died.

Anyway, my mom and grandma are going to this movie opening night.

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My mom is Joan Hess. Michael was her cousin. Doc and Marge are her aunt and uncle.

The Irish church in the fifties was f'ed.

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If so, how was it?