SALT AND IRON
SALT AND IRON
Feature Screenplay, 115 pages
Drama, Adventure
Written by Paulie O'Sullivan
Character DrivenHistoricalLaw EnforcementPeriodRevengeRuralTragedyViolenceWar/MilitaryTime Period: 18th- 19th CenturyStory Location: EuropeTarget Audience: Adult
Active ✔ PDFAlong the rugged west coast of 18th-century Ireland, legendary smuggler Morty Oge O’Sullivan is hunted by a relentless Crown officer — driving both men toward a violent reckoning neither can escape.
Set along the rugged west coast of 18th century Ireland, and inspired by true events, this is the story of the legendary smuggler Morty Oge O’Sullivan — a man who moves like a ghost between land and sea, outpacing the Crown at every turn, and building a quiet reputation among his people as both outlaw and protector.
But Morty’s world begins to close in when he draws the attention of John Puxley, a disciplined and unyielding officer of the British Crown. Where Morty is instinct and defiance, Puxley is order and control — a man who does not believe in luck, only in pressure, patience, and the certainty that all men break eventually.
Their conflict deepens as Puxley establishes his presence at Dunboy — the ruined ancestral stronghold of the O’Sullivan Beare clan, Morty’s own bloodline — a symbolic act that turns pursuit into something far more personal, and far more permanent.
What begins as pursuit quickly becomes a quiet war.
As Morty builds a fragile network of loyalty along the coast — recruiting desperate men, evading patrols, and quietly moving men and goods toward France — Puxley tightens his grip, turning informants, exploiting weakness, and learning how to think like the man he hunts.
Between them lies a country on edge. Poverty, rebellion, and opportunity blur the lines between right and wrong, and the people caught in the middle must choose where they stand — or be crushed by both sides.
But this is not a story of hero and villain.
It is the story of two men, bound by opposing codes, drawn toward an inevitable collision.
Because John Puxley does not stop.
And Morty Oge does not yield.
And along that unforgiving coast, with the memory of Dunboy behind them and the promise of France on the horizon, there is no safe ground — only the slow, rising certainty that when they finally meet, one of them will not walk away.
