Fittingly for a film that draws deeply from the some of the thousands of documents kept in a state-owned collection of papers and correspondence, in this case the Irish military pension archives, this documentary is a dense, wordy wodge of history: significant, hefty and worthwhile, but scratchy and a little dry in storytelling terms.
The archives hold endless stacks of brown cardboard boxes – photographed here with the kind of awestruck reverence and tendresse that recalls the way Josef von Sternberg shot Marlene Dietrich – that contain applications requesting pensions for soldiers who fought between the Easter uprising of 1916 through to the end of the Irish civil war. A big chunk of correspondence came from the families of those who fought and died. Extracts are read by a mix of actors and applicants’ descendants, the latter often expanding on what they remember of family history. Illustrative and picturesque visuals are provided by archive footage, vintage dramatic recreations from TV, and some rather pretty drone footage of the ocean and rural landscapes.
The main takeaway is that these personal quests for pensions, or even the decision not to pursue a pension in some cases, was nearly as fraught, charged and infused with politics as the war itself. And of course, like most stories from Irish history of the era, there’s injustice and tragedy aplenty. Out of 85,000 applicants, only 18,000 were granted pensions, and many of the higher ranked, better known veterans received substantially larger payouts than humbler warriors. Widows, some with 10 children and no means of support, went hungry or worse; for example, two orphans ended up being fostered and horribly abused by those who were supposed to care for them.
Co-screenwriter Diarmaid Ferriter who appears here on-screen, and other academic interviewees, speak eloquently in more abstract terms about memory and legacy. Nevertheless, the less engaging digressions dilute the thematic point, and unless you are really interested in the subject the slow drip of facts becomes a bit of grind over the long haul.
