Revealing mistake: When Mary Carson dies and Father Ralph de Bricassart closes her eyes, her abdomen moves up and down as the actress is breathing. (02:02:10)
Revealing mistake: When the youngest baby (Hal) dies and Father Ralph de Bricassart holds him, he is moving (and cannot be dead therefore). When they show the dead baby moments later, it doesn't look like a real baby anymore. (01:32:30)
Answer: When Fee was very young, she had an affair with a man and became pregnant. To avoid a scandal, she was quickly married off to Paddy Cleary, a good and honest man, but someone far below Fee in social class. The eldest son (from Fee's previous relationship) never felt that he fit into the family, and both he and the second eldest son left home early on and met premature deaths. Neither character appears in the TV series, they are only mentioned. Stu and Hal are killed later in the story.
raywest