These four women are deeply connected to each other in some surprising ways, to their environment, and to the men that are in the shadows outside the action that we observe throughout the drama.

Nora – the matriarch who has been living with war-torn conditions for a very long time. She has developed ways to cope and to find pleasure in things, including hoping for nothing more grand than a remnant piece of fabric with which to decorate her front room.

 

Cassie – Nora’s daughter, whose husband has been “lifted” by the British and is in jail (the “Kesh”). She dreams of getting out altogether, even if it means leaving her children behind. She has some less than admirable secrets.

 

Marie – friend of the two women and in some ways, the center of comfort. She is the soft one, who, clinging to the memory of her deceased husband Michael, refuses to succumb to despair.

 

Deidre – the mysterious young stranger, whose connection to them all is revealed in painful ways. Her name is the same as Deidre of the Sorrows, the maid of Ulster, an important legend of Irish mythology. She was the beautiful daughter of the king’s bard, promised in marriage to a king, but in love with another man. She ended tragically. Rona Munro has stated that she did not intentionally name her character after the “dangerous one,” but the audience cannot help but make the connection.