In early 1950s Belfast, Judith, a single middle-aged Catholic, is invited to the cinema on a date by James Madden, recently returned from New York. They watch Samson and Delilah directed by Cecil B. DeMille in 1949.

After the biblical epic, there is a newsreel featuring the Queen and the Protestant audience clap enthusiastically. ‘Miss Hearne and Mr Madden sat with their hands in their laps. No handclaps for her, a foreign queen. Let them give back the Six Counties and then we’ll clap,’

The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne was adapted for the cinema in 1987 directed by Jack Clayton and starring Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins.