Ballykissangel

It is still the night of the bonfire party. Niamh decides she must tell Ambrose that the marriage is over. The next day, Niamh leaves Kieran with Siobhan and spends the day with Sean at the lake, and they discuss their future. Sean tells her that he loves her. Meanwhile, Ambrose goes for a walk while engrossed in thought about his troubled marriage when he sees two people in difficulty on the rocks below. He shouts to tell them that he will try to find a way for them to escape the incoming tide. Elsewhere, a Frenchman called D'Argan, has come to challenge ""the head man of the village"" to a balloon race. Donal and Liam go to find Brian who is the closets they can think of. Brian is uninterested until he discovers that the event is to complete a race started 200 years previously, and that £40,000 is at stake. However, Monsieur D'Argan has forgotten that the French economy has had one major change since Napoleonic times.

The sudden loss in Ballykissangel has left everyone in tears, particularly Niamh who must deal with the new changes in her life. In the meantime, Orla moves into a new cottage hoping for some freedom.

Liam and Donal have been sent to buy washed sand for a bunker on Brian's golf course. With fifty pounds in their pockets they reckon that sand from the beach will be just as good. While they are loading the sand onto a lorry, a car drives past at speed, stops, and the occupants push a large wooden chest into the sea. Liam and Donal open the chest and even though they're not sure what the contents are, bring it home. They later discover that the caviar inside is worth a lot of money. Sean and Niamh have not spoken since the funeral. Niamh talks to Father Aidan in the confessional and his advice is that she has to decide what is best for her. After much indecision, she agrees to meet Sean. She tells him that she is going to leave BallyK. Meanwhile, Orla and Conor have their first date - if it is a date. They are both intensely competitive and they end up racing around a muddy course on Quad Bikes.

Niamh has decided that she must move away from BallyK. The decision spurs Brian to sell Fitzgerald's. Two parties are interested. One is a retired civil servant from Dublin, who is looking for an investment. He manages to annoy Brian by talking about getting the pub ""up to scratch"". The second party is Oonagh Dooley, who is more interested in keeping the family atmosphere of the pub. Brian takes a liking to Oonagh, but he doesn't realise that she is the wife of his former enemy, Paul Dooley. When the deal with the civil servant falls through, Brian makes Oonagh and offer to rent the pub, leaving Niamh with some control. Emma and Sean fall out over driving lessons and Sean's and Niamh's relationship. Emma feels that Sean should be doing something. Niamh is grateful that Aidan has given her the freedom to make up her own mind.

A woman representing Australian mining interests arrives in BallyK looking for a ""man called Quigley"". If Brian can prove his relationship to another Quigley from BallyK, who owned an Australian gold mine in 1854, he stands to earn half a million Australian dollars. Brian's attempts to prove his relationship with jack Quigley are ambushed several times by bad luck until he eventually uncovers the evidence. But there are doubts about the genuineness of the Australian offer. Orla unexpectedly invites a man onto Conor's boat. She claims that he is a writer for a fishing guide, and a favourable review in the book will give Conor's business the boost it needs. But, if he is an expert, why doe he not use the correct bait? Is it just part of an elaborate cover-up to keep his true reason for being on board hidden? Imelda arrives to help Niamh, but her criticisms and barbed comments are too much to bear, and there is a frank exchange of views.

Paul Dooley is released from prison, having spent six months inside for tax fraud. Now bankrupt he does not know that his wife, Oonagh, has arranged a new life for him and their two children, Dermott and Grainne, in Ballykissangel. Paul is furious. As the Dooleys move in, Niamh moves out, planning to leave the village and move to the outskirts of Dublin. As she waits for the key to arrive at the Estate Agent's, she goes to a pub where she and Sean have spent some time in the past. Sean, who had earlier spotted in town, is already there. He tries to avoid her, but fails, and they sit together and fantasise about what a future together might have been like. They say goodbye. Romance is blossoming for Orla and Conor - or rather it would if it were not for the interruptions. Conor plans a romantic evening at Orla's cottage, but she has invited half the village to a party to celebrate keeping her job at Fitzgerald's.