Mánas Ó Máille is a local 60 year old single man who lives with his mother, Jude.
Both himself and his brother Diarmaid have fallen out over the love of a woman, Bairbre. Diarmaid got Bairbre and Mánas got his mother.
Mánas was a building contractor who made a fortune during the boom years before he retired to buy the local landlord’s estate. For a good price he bought the big house, a couple of hundred acres of woodland, and fishing rights on the river.
But Mánas is a living example of the clichéd “poacher turned gamekaper”. As a young man, himself and his brother Diarmaid were always poaching the river, but Mánas is said to be tougher against poachers than the previous owners. Instead of turning a blind eye to something which has always been going on and costs him very little, Mánas takes poaching as a personal insult. He has singled out his estranged brother, Diarmaid, as the main poacher and intends teaching him a lesson.