Irishchatter I found it really impossible to try and watch this movie online but managed to have gotten only a few parts to this. Anyways let's talk about the short movie.I found it really OK like as some reviewer said here it's not the best. I thought the storyline was OK but you have to really keep up with it. Although I do understand it's about a buck who got kicked out of the priesthood for thinking he was messing with the fella who was gay. The lad was only straight like.Jesus you would know full well that the catholic church doesn't know a thing about reality. Especially how the amount of sexual abuse cases from their pervy priests made them being spoilt sick men. Sure it'll always be a disgrace from beginning to end. I was surprised that Chris O'Dowd got involved in this, it's a shame he wasn't discovered earlier on in his career! Even i didn't realise Hugh Bonneville from Downtown Abbey was on this too! Seriously I never heard of these people before until later life lol!I give this movie 8/10 even if the quality and the storyline seemed unfinished, it's still good to know the Catholic Church coverups!

Lee Eisenberg In the last decade or two a lot of news has come out about the Catholic Church's cover-up of pedophilia. John Deery's "Conspiracy of Silence" isn't about that but about something similar: the church's policy of celibacy. In this case, the suicide of a gay priest living with HIV and the expulsion of some students suspected of a same-sex relationship prompt an article questioning the rightness of the church's celibacy policy.It seems very likely that forcing priests to be celibate increases the risk of the priests' molesting children. Relationships are natural among all species, and not letting people be in relationships can only damage them. This is not to be confused with pedophilia, which is a disease. But either way, the Catholic Church has had a history of suppressing all news of the molestations, as well as a history of homophobia."Conspiracy of Silence" isn't a great movie but does a good job looking at these different topics. It's all the more impressive considering that the director was a first timer. I recommend it.

manschelde-1 Watched this film in 2010 on DVD on a rainy Friday evening in October - so this was ideal although sombre entertainment.The film has a reasonably fast pace, a simple story line - a little preachy in its anti-celibacy message, but overall worthwhile, although the ending is a bit implausible.It seems somewhat unrealistic that a seminary in today's Ireland would still exist with more than half a dozen trainees, and hard to believe that with such low numbers that they would so quickly expel a trainee without evidence. The film was made in 2003 before the onslaught of the fallout of the Catholic-Church-Protects-Paedophiles scandals, and to see the movie again in the knowledge of such events gives an added frisson - "the church is killing itself from the inside" is one of the quotes from the film.The storyline involves celibate priests that are gay - it could just as easily have portrayed priests or bishops that have one or more children - but perhaps the movie had an agenda that was more than just anti-celibacy but also against the anti-gay homophobic nature of the roman-catholic hierarchy.The film shows a statistic about 100,000 priests having quit because of the celibacy rule - but does'not show the numbers of priests in non-catholic Christian traditions who can marry but still leave their ministries anyway.For a non-Irish audience some of the accents are difficult, and my DVD did not have a sub-title track for some reason.A worthy film, if a little flawed, hope to see more from this director.

gradyharp CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE is a moody, dark, probing inquiry into the concept of celibacy of priests in the Catholic Church in Ireland and all the way to the Vatican. The concept, story and script by Writer/Director John Deery are tight, arrow sharp in aim, but ultimately unresolved issues cloud the success of what could have been a pungent movie.Set in a seminary in Ireland for preparing young men for the priesthood, we are introduced to some warmly human characters such as Daniel McLaughlin (Jonathan Forbes), a squeaky clean lad who gave up a girlfriend Sinead (Catherine Walker) to follow his (and his family's) life ambition to become a priest. Naive, warm, loving, athletic and bright, he is the seminary poster boy - until one evening after hours he innocently visits a fellow seminarian's room and is the focus of seduction by the student who kindly says 'we're all only human and have our needs'. Daniel gently declines the advances, leaves the student's room but is observed by an old priest with demons of his own. The priest reports the incident and Daniel is abruptly thrown out of the seminary by the evil Rector Cathal (Sean McGinley) for being homosexual - a charge that couldn't be farther from the truth.At the same time in another part of the seminary the fine Father Sweeney dresses in all his priestly regalia and commits suicide is a gruesome way. His suicide is threatening to the staff of the seminary and a cover-up is immediately put in place. It seems Father Sweeney some four years ago had stirred controversy in the Vatican by publicly exposing his HIV status, alerting the Church and the world that HIV was rampant in the world wide Church. His partner left the priesthood, disillusioned, but following FR Sweeney to the seminary in Ireland.An earnest reporter David Foley (Jason Barry) begins the investigation of the suicide and in doing so finds the reason for Daniel's expulsion as well as the myriad dark secrets being covered by the Church - all to do with the concept of celibacy and the inevitable sequelae of sensual deprivation on priests. One Father Jack Dowling (Hugh Bonneville) supports David and Daniel and is disenchanted with the behavior of the Church against its own priests. Then, without resolving any of these fascinating strings of thought the movie ends, leaving many questions unanswered - as though there are no answers.The acting is uniformly strong (including the likes of Brenda Fricker as Daniel's mother et al), for once giving a spectrum of the priesthood that is not favoring bad or good. These characters are men with convictions and none can be faulted for their stances. The setting in Ireland is magnificently captured by cinematographer Jason Lehel, and Francis Haines and Stephen W. Parsons provide a hauntingly beautiful musical score. As far as it takes us this is a fine film. Perhaps Deery is planning Part II to finish this story! Grady Harp