Trespasses on Channel 4 ending explained: What happened to Cushla in the 'brilliantly moving' love story set during the Troubles
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Trespasses is Channel 4’s brilliantly moving adaptation of the heartbreaking novel of the same name about forbidden love – but the ending showed us hope amongst the ashes of a broken Belfast.
The tale of Cushla and Michael was as tortured as Romeo and Juliet. The backdrop? A bruised, beaten, and bomb-damaged Belfast in 1975. It was clear from the start that the passionate affair between the two leading characters would come at a high cost.
As Cushla’s friend Gerry told her: “Forget about getting your heart broken, you’re risking much more than that.”
The tenderness of Cushla and Michael’s love clashed with the violence around them, and the danger of his job. Only a painful future was certain. And in the penultimate episode of the Channel 4 drama, Michael was killed, leaving Cushla bent double with grief.
In Belfast, love was “never far from violence”, and Trespasses was about people trying to live ordinary lives in extraordinary times. In Michael’s words, the protagonists “must find the courage to choose freedom over fear”.
***Warning: spoilers from the ending of Trespasses ahead***
What happened in Trespasses?
Trespasses introduced Cushla Lavery, a 24-year-old teacher from a Catholic family. While her mum (Gillian Anderson as sublime as ever) drank herself to oblivion every day, Cushla often helped her brother out at the family pub – which controversially served both sides of the conflict during the Troubles. Which is where Cushla met Michael Agnew.
Michael was older, in his 40s, who “charmed the knickers off her”. But his age wasn’t the only obstacle. The barrister was a “posh Protestant” who was, in fact, married to someone else and had a son.
Worlds apart, Cushla knew a relationship between them would cause all kinds of trouble. She joked “we’re doomed”, but they were irresistibly drawn to one another, and embarked on a reckless affair. Which, of course, they had to keep secret.
This was a time when Catholics and Protestants were “enemies”. Mixed marriages and relationships were seen as “an abomination”, and you could get killed for your political views.
Set in 1975 during the Troubles, in a town outside Belfast, Cushla and Michael fell in love. But his job – defending IRA suspects and speaking out about police brutality – attracted the attention of Special Branch. In fact, many saw him as a “traitor” and accused him of “defending the indefensible”.
Micheal “chose freedom over fear” but that had consequences – especially when he took a case about police brutality. Reader, it was never going to end well… And it didn’t.
Trespasses Channel 4 ending: Was Michael married?
Michael was married, with a teenage son Dermot. In the penultimate episode, Cushla and Michael had an intimate weekend away in Dublin. While there, he told her he wouldn’t be around for a while. She assumed she would be working but, in fact, she later discovered he was spending time with his family.
Just days later, as a distraction, she took her mum Gina for a fancy meal at a hotel. But it turned out to be excruciatingly awkward. On the way out of the restaurant, Cushla saw Michael having lunch with his wife and son. Feeling a fool, she began to realise she’d fallen for a “philandering [bleep]” and declared it was “over”. It was the first time she’d been confronted with the truth about his real life.
Michael subsequently told her his wife wasn’t well. He explained: “Sometimes she’s well enough to do things. Dermot just finished his A’Levels, so we all went out for lunch. But she has long-term clinical depression. She’s been in hospital the last few months getting electric shock treatment.”
He added: “I want to be with you, but I can’t leave Joanna. I can’t leave, because I ruined her life. Joanna was studying law in Dublin when I got her pregnant. After the birth, she was never right, and she just got worse. She can’t live on her own. And I can’t ask Dermot to give up his life for her, because he would.”
Did Michael love Cushla?
Michael said he and his wife no longer had sex. He also admitted he’d had three affairs before Cushla. He added: “This is not an affair; this is different.”
When Cushla (Lola Petticrew) asked him why, he cried: “Because I love you Cushla, I love you. And, whatever happens, I will never ever lie to you again I promise.
“I didn’t expect to fall in love. And I do not expect you to give up your life for me. You’d make a wonderful wife and mother. And I can’t give you any of that.”
However, fiercely in love, Cushla told Michael she didn’t want to stop seeing him. It was a heartbreaking and impossible situation. When Michael and Cushla cried, we all felt it.
Cushla asked Michael (Tom Cullen): “This is going to end really badly, isn’t it?” And we all knew it would. That was the last time she saw him.
Trespasses ending explained on Channel 4: Did Michael die?
Cushla and Michael’s attraction was of the fatal kind. They were both risking death just by being together. Her relationship with him got her noticed by the wrong people, while his job alone put his life in danger every day.
In the penultimate episode of Trespasses on Channel 4, Michael Agnew was shot dead. The high-profile barrister was killed in his own home. As the final episode began, a shell-shocked Cushla told her brother Eamonn: “I was on my way to see him.”
Knowing the danger she’d be in if their affair got out, he told her to “pull herself together”. He said: “You’re going to walk in there as if someone you barely knew died.”
It was one of the most gut-wrenching scenes we’ve seen on TV this year, or ever. Of course, no one knew about Cushla and Michael’s love for each other, so she was forced to grieve in silence.
She loved him, but she’d never told him.
Who killed Michael Agnew in the Trespasses ending on Channel 4?
Police arrested Tommy McGeown for the murder of Michael Agnew. After he was taken away, Cushla agonised over whether she’d played a part in Michael’s death. Tommy had a sweet spot for Cushla. Once, when he called her, Cushla has answered the phone saying “Michael”. She was the connection between the victim and his killer.
The provisional IRA claimed responsibility for Michael’s death. But did Tommy actually kill Michael on their behalf or did the RUC – the Royal Ulster Constabulary – pin it on him? Tommy confessed. He had killed Michael.
As Cushla, Gina, and Eamonn made their way to Michael’s funeral, Gina said: “It’s bloody mortifying going to a funeral knowing that our lot did it.”
When Cushla visited Tommy in prison, he said Michael’s death was not because of Cushla. He explained: “I was working on the road. It started raining. Michael took me in. I saw the picture of him in the wig. I thought he was a judge.”
We knew that Michael had in fact been “fighting the judges” and “risking his life” to help boys like Tommy. But it was hard to blame Tommy. The eldest McGeown brother – and his family – never really stood a chance.
What happened to the McGeown family?
Of course, we knew the McGeown’s tragic history. Tommy’s parents had committed the “abomination” of a mixed marriage between a Protestant and a Catholic. This meant they were pariahs. And Cushla put a protective wing over the youngest son Davy, who she taught in school.
The dad Seamie McGeown had been beaten half to death for the ‘sin’ of a ‘mixed marriage’. Because the dad could no longer work, this meant that Tommy was forced to leave school and bring money in. And it wasn’t a good path he choose. In a cruel twist of fate, Cushla had previously shown Tommy kindness by lending him books, and encouraging his studies.
In the final episode, the McGeown house was set on fire by hostile neighbours, who “cheered” as they did it. And Cushla and Gina, unwisely, took the family in.
After leaving Gina and Cushla’s house, the McGeown’s went to the army barracks. Davy and his sister Mandy were subsequently put into care. Cushla blamed herself. She’s previously asked the school Principal Bradley to help them, but he’d reported them to social services.
Trespasses ending explained on Channel 4: What happened to Cushla?
In the final episode of Trespasses on Channel 4, Cushla told friend and fellow teacher Gerry that she’d been in love with Michael. Confused about her feelings, she kissed him, thinking it was what he wanted. But he, in turn, had his own secret… He was gay. Homosexuality was a crime in Belfast at that time (and until 1993).
After Gina and Cushla took the McGeown’s in, it was only a matter of time before violence caught up with them. Police – namely Frank Blake‘s Special Branch officer – called Cushla in for questioning about her relationship with Michael. He was in possessing of dozens of pictures of Cushla and Michael together. Special Branch was watching Michael the whole time, and “leaning on him to drop the brutality case” against the police.
In a time of intense political turmoil, Cushla was flirting with serious danger. Her relationship with Michael was just the start; there was also the family pub serving both sides, and her friendship with the McGeown family.
Cushla blamed herself for Michael’s death. But, of course, life went on. As it had for her mum Gina, when her husband had died.
In the closing minutes of the Trespasses ending on Channel 4, the Lavery family pub The Anchor Bar was destroyed by a bomb blast. Luckily no one was hurt, but the message was received loud and clear. When Cushla blamed herself saying it “was all her fault”, her brother Eamonn said: “Not really, it’s this [bleep] up place. Where else does being kind get you bombed?”
But he added: “No deaths is a gift.” He also found the humour to laugh about being able to “claim insurance money”. Ultimately, the pub was bombed because of the Lavery family’s connection to the McGeowns. It was not the work of the IRA.
What did the Trespasses ending mean?
Eamonn planned to put the pub on the market and move away. Cushla stayed in Belfast with her mammy, and was finally able to appreciate the unique love she and Michael had for each other. Even if it ended tragically. We saw her at the end, as a much older lady, visiting Penny Fielding’s art exhibition about Belfast and the Troubles. There was even a sculpture of Michael. It called to mind Michael’s earlier words: “He turned his suffering into art.”
Of course, Penny was Michael’s artist friend, who also attended the Irish conversational evenings. At the exhibition, Cushla met Davy McGeown, who was “all grown up”. He’d made a life for himself, and was working with foster kids, and had a grown kid of his own.
It was a sort of happy ending, in a time where they were few and far between.
Ending explained: What year was Channel 4’s Trespasses set?
The Channel 4 drama Trespasses was set in 1975 in a town outside Belfast. That year was a particularly turbulent one for Northern Ireland, and fraught with tension.
The mid-70s was marked by intense violence during the Troubles, despite a temporary IRA ceasefire. There were high levels of sectarian killings, with loyalist and republican paramilitaries carrying out attacks, bombings, and assassinations.
In 1975, the feud between the Provisional IRA and Official IRA resulted in civilian deaths – including the death of a six-year-old girl – as did the bombing of the Bayardo Bar by the Provisional IRA. The year was one of the most violent years of the Troubles, with over 260 people killed.
It was a terrible time and place to be alive.
Trespasses ending on Channel 4: What were the Troubles?
The Troubles refers to a period of “violent conflict” in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s. They officially came to an end in 1998, thanks to the Good Friday Agreement.
The conflict was between pro-British Protestants (unionists) and Irish nationalists (republicans) who wanted to become part of the Republic of Ireland. It also included clashes between republican and loyalist paramilitary groups and British security forces.
It was primarily about national identity and the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. The violence over 30 years involved riots, street clashes, and terrorist attacks, leading to the deaths of over 3,600 people.
What does Taig or Taghe mean?
In Trespasses, Cushla refers to herself as the “token taig”. But what does taig mean? Well, it’s a slur for a “stage Irishman”. Taig in Northern Ireland is most commonly used as a derogatory term by loyalists to refer to Irish Catholics.
Meanwhile, Cushla also calls herself a “fenian”. Like taig, fenian is a “derogatory and offensive slang term” for an Irish Catholic.
Another derogatory slang term used for Catholics in Trespasses is “Mick” (short for Michael). This is also an offensive ethnic and religious slur for an Irish person, and by extension, a Catholic. It’s seen as highly insulting.
Is the ending of Trespasses on Channel 4 the same as the book?
The ending of the Channel 4 adaptation stays faithful to the novel Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.
Written by Bad Sisters’ Ailbhe Keogan, the show is based on the bestselling book of the same name. Critics described it as “t
It was first published in 2022 and currently has a four and a half star out of five rating on Amazon. It was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2023, and won multiple others including The British Book Awards Book of the Year.
Comedian Russell Kane described it as “like Sally Rooney mixed with a political thriller”, while author Marian Keyes called it: “Intense, unflinchingly honest, it broke my heart a million times.”
The series more than does it justice.
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