When the Boat Comes In — Season 1, Episode 8: Paddy Boyle's Discharge

Episode synopsis

Mary dies. Jack is in a pub when he meets old army colleague Sid Hepburn, still a professional soldier who suggests that Jack re-enlist as soldiers' pay is very good. Paddy Boyle, an Irish member of Jack's sheep-stealing gang, is convinced that Hepburn and his friend Bartram are the two British soldiers responsible for rape and murder back in Cork. Jack realises that Paddy is a member of Sinn Fein. Having considered Hepburn's offer, Jack declines rejoining the army but is too late to stop carnage when Bartram and Hepburn are shot by Paddy and his Sinn Fein comrade Lynch. Despite a warning cry from Jack, Paddy is also shot by a British soldier.

About When the Boat Comes In

When the Boat Comes In is a British television period drama produced by the BBC between 8 January 1976 and 21 April 1981. Taking place between 1919 to 1937, Jack Ford is a veteran of The Great War who returns to his poverty-stricken (fictional) town of Gallowshield in the North East of England. It dramatises the interwar political struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, and explores the impact of national and international politics upon Ford and those around him.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1A Land Fit for Heroes and Idiots
• E2Say Hello... Say Tirra
• E3Fish in Woolly Jumpers
• E4Swords and Pick Handles
• E5Coal Comfort
• E6Empire Day on the Slag Heap
• E7A First Time for Everything
• E9Angel on Horseback
• E10King for a Day
• E11Happy New Year, Some Say
• E12Heads You Win, Tails I Lose
• E13Kind Hearted Rat with a Lifebelt