1994 the summer of the ceasefire. In the Northern Irish border town of Cross after decades of
violent protest against British rule a community plays out its end game. Francie a
principled elder of the cause has authorised the murder of a policeman his teenage henchmen
are triumphant at pulling it off. In the town square the Widow Donnelly protests because her
son has gone missing. Young Cathy Murphy the daughter of a Protestant is trying to find her
place among a people who ignore her and pathological Handy Byrne whose marksmanship makes him
a valuable weapon is out of control. Meanwhile paranoia is growing because operations are
beginning to go wrong. The townsfolk suspect a tout but no one is willing to accept the
evidence before their eyes. Cross is an extraordinary act of ventriloquism intimately
capturing the language humour loyalties and divisions within a lawless town where violence
is rewarded and complicity is second nature. It is an intricate tale of betrayal and brutality
at the height of the Troubles a moving powerful and empathetic lament for a community that
has lost its way in its battle for the nation.
