Irish director Alex Fegan again becomes Ireland’s ear for untold stories in Older Than Ireland, a warm and wonderfully humane documentary that allows some of Ireland’s oldest citizens to share how our country has transformed before their eyes.
Fegan previously utilised his gentle, unobtrusive interviewing style in the slight but charming feature The Irish Pub, in which he spoke to publicans across the country. Here, speaking to centenarians, his interviews yield even more rewarding results. Tenderly unfurling threads of insight and memory, Fegan not only traverses personal milestones such as first memories, loves and losses; but immortalises witness accounts of historical events such as the 1920 Bloody Sunday and the Easter Rising.
Fegan’s characters are a delight, such as Dubliner Bessie Nolan, who looks for all the world like fashion icon Iris Apfel – and has the same wry sense of humour and independence. Some participants, bored of answering how they’ve lived to a hundred, have come up with mischievous answers to shake things up a bit – “I worked for a while, then became a prostitute” is one woman’s preferred jaw-dropper. But this comfortable humour is blended with disarming honesty, as people speak of poverty, of losing friends and children to emigration or tragedy, and widows confide in Fegan that “when she died, I died too.”
As the comforting stillness of the camera lends an intimately observant feel to the film, Older Than Ireland acts as an organically flowing oral history of Ireland, that (albeit very lightly) touches on issues like the abusive power of the Church to influence beliefs regarding same-sex marriage; and how Twitter confuses a generation for whom travelling to America meant never seeing your family again.
A poignant film that highlights the humanity and insight of a social group too often ignored.