Directed by Alex Fegan. Reviewed by Paul Sorrell

The premise of this film is simple. Take 30 Irish centenarians, put them in front of the camera and let them talk about their lives. The results are always engaging and often moving.

The participants are a diverse bunch. At one end of the spectrum is 103-year-old Bessy Nolan, gossipy and stylishly dressed, with a cigarette held in her elegant hand. At the other is Luke Dolan (108), small and wizened in his bed, but still able to emit a loud “Yippee!” when remembering youthful hijinks.

The first question they are asked is how it feels to be 100. For most, it made no difference at at all — merely the turn of a page in the calendar. They talk mostly about their personal lives — hard childhood days when an orange was a major treat, suffering under “brutal” schoolteachers, then courting (mainly a lot of fun) and marriage. Almost all speak warmly of their spouses, counting themselves blessed to have found their soulmate. Their inevitable loss is hard to bear. “When my wife died, so did I”, says Jimmy Barry (103).

In one segment, the participants recall Ireland’s tumultous political history. One woman tells of climbing a tower with her mother to see Dublin ablaze during the Easter rising of 1916. Others recall the Black and Tans — “volunteer police, not soldiers” — with a sense of dread. The Irish Civil War was a time that most would rather forget, and the original IRA is recalled with a mixture of pride and unease. Jimmy Barry was at Dublin’s Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 1920 when British troops opened fire on the crowd. One woman, a member of the Church of Ireland, remembers only a single hostile incident — when her parish church was torched, her Catholic neighbours rushed to beat out the flames.

I was impressed by how full of life the centenarians were. The oldest, Kathleen Snavely (113), then living in Syracuse, New York, didn’t look a day over 80 — she is astonishingly alive. While their stories are interwoven, director Fegan ensures that we keep track of who’s who by adopting different filmic styles and showing his subjects in a variety of situations — in rest homes, celebrating a birthday, taking tea in the front room, meeting a friend at the shops or pottering in the garden.

In a film full of memorable lines, the quotation that has stuck with me is Michael O’Connor’s formula for a long and healthy life: “If you dig a hole in your back garden today, and fill it in again tomorrow, you’ll be doing yourself a power of good.” There’s something quintessentially Irish about that! 

Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 236 April 2019: 29