"This is My Father" is a tear jerker from the Quinn family. Paul Quinn directed , Aiden Quinn starred and there was another brother involved in the writing, I think.
A sixty-ish high school teacher in Chicago, Kieran Johnson (James Caan) is in a rut. Divorced, he is living with his sister Betty (Susan Alangren) and her son Jack (Jacob Tierney) caring for their mother (Francois Graton) who has suffered a stroke and is unable to speak. One day, Kieran discovers an old photograph of his mother with a man whom Kieran suspects is his biological father. His mother evidently never spoke of this man and had married another after arriving in Chicago from Ireland in 1939.
Kieran decides that he wants to go to Ireland in search of his father's past. He is more or less forced to take the rebellious young Jack with him. In Kilronan, a small Irish village they stay at an inn run by Seamus Kearney (Colm Meaney). Seamus' mother who has lived her long life in the village offers to recount the events of 1939 to Kieran.
In flashback we meet Fiona Flynn (Moya Farrelly), Kieran's mother who is the daughter of wealthy landowner the widow Flynn (Gina Moxley). Kieran O'Day (Aiden Quinn) is an outsider who works for and lives with widow Flynn's tenant farm couple, the Maneys, (Donal Donnelly, Maria McDermottroe). Fiona is just an innocent 17 years of age but is attracted to O'Day. They fall in love and Fiona becomes pregnant.
Widow Flynn becomes furious and turns the villagers, including the parish priest Father Mooney (Eamon Morrissey) against O'Day and Fiona. In this time and village, such out of wedlock is frowned upon in this fiercely religious Catholic community. Widow Flynn decides to send Fiona away and forbids her to talk to O'Day. The bewildered O'Day is told to leave by the Manets and is seemingly ignored by Fiona when she and her mother drive past hom one day.
Fiona plans to run away with O'Day but is unable to tell him of her plans. A despondent O'Day feeling he is all alone and abandoned...............................
It's at this point you should go for the kleenex box. Kieran finds out the truth about his father and in a tearful but moving scene, goes to his father's grave. Back in Chicago, his aged mother learns of his findings and understanding what she hears is vindicated in her mind for not telling her son of his biological father.
A sixty-ish high school teacher in Chicago, Kieran Johnson (James Caan) is in a rut. Divorced, he is living with his sister Betty (Susan Alangren) and her son Jack (Jacob Tierney) caring for their mother (Francois Graton) who has suffered a stroke and is unable to speak. One day, Kieran discovers an old photograph of his mother with a man whom Kieran suspects is his biological father. His mother evidently never spoke of this man and had married another after arriving in Chicago from Ireland in 1939.
Kieran decides that he wants to go to Ireland in search of his father's past. He is more or less forced to take the rebellious young Jack with him. In Kilronan, a small Irish village they stay at an inn run by Seamus Kearney (Colm Meaney). Seamus' mother who has lived her long life in the village offers to recount the events of 1939 to Kieran.
In flashback we meet Fiona Flynn (Moya Farrelly), Kieran's mother who is the daughter of wealthy landowner the widow Flynn (Gina Moxley). Kieran O'Day (Aiden Quinn) is an outsider who works for and lives with widow Flynn's tenant farm couple, the Maneys, (Donal Donnelly, Maria McDermottroe). Fiona is just an innocent 17 years of age but is attracted to O'Day. They fall in love and Fiona becomes pregnant.
Widow Flynn becomes furious and turns the villagers, including the parish priest Father Mooney (Eamon Morrissey) against O'Day and Fiona. In this time and village, such out of wedlock is frowned upon in this fiercely religious Catholic community. Widow Flynn decides to send Fiona away and forbids her to talk to O'Day. The bewildered O'Day is told to leave by the Manets and is seemingly ignored by Fiona when she and her mother drive past hom one day.
Fiona plans to run away with O'Day but is unable to tell him of her plans. A despondent O'Day feeling he is all alone and abandoned...............................
It's at this point you should go for the kleenex box. Kieran finds out the truth about his father and in a tearful but moving scene, goes to his father's grave. Back in Chicago, his aged mother learns of his findings and understanding what she hears is vindicated in her mind for not telling her son of his biological father.