This new film offers a unique perspective on the past, present future of faith in Ireland and it features Fr. Maurice Brick of Castleisland Parish and the late Fr. Kevin McNamara of Glenflesk Parish and later of Moyvane Parish.
In a society utterly transformed over the past 40 years, a new film offers a nuanced exploration of the Catholic Church in Ireland through the lens of the sacrament of confession as a way of understanding our past, as well as where we are now and where we are going.
Sins of Ireland was released at cinemas around Ireland on Good Friday. It will be screened at Cinema Killarney, including a special post film question and answer session with director Alex Fegan and Fr. Chris O’Donnell on Tuesday, April 22nd at 7pm.
Alex Fegan is the maker of such memorable documentary films as Older Than Ireland and The Irish Pub.
The Lens of The Confession Box
‘Sins of Ireland’ is a portrait of Ireland through the lens of the confession box. What became the practice of confession originated during the seventh century, when Irish missionaries took to continental Europe the ‘private’ practice of penance.
These Irish monks would regularly confess their faults to a highly trusted brother monk who became known as the ‘anam chara’ – or ‘soul friend.’
This was a major change from the public completion of penitential works which prior to that had been the norm throughout Europe.
In Sins of Ireland, fifteen Irish priests who have long listened to the sins of others, offer their own confessional on the rise and fall of a sacrament that now epitomises the turbulent changes in faith and spirituality in contemporary Ireland.
A Nuanced and Uncynical Examination
The documentary is a nuanced and uncynical examination of confession, as the priests themselves acknowledge how a rite meant to offer absolution and guidance had for many years become a tool of control and shame, with devastating consequences.
Yet, Sins of Ireland also explores forgiveness – not as an easy resolution, but as a necessary reckoning with the past and a gateway to spiritual redemption.
In confronting their own failings and the sins of the church, these priests lay bare the complexities of remorse, accountability, and the possibility of reconciliation.
And looking forward with hope and humility, they give their thoughts as to how the Church needs to evolve significantly if it is to serve the people it for so long let down.
Need for Honest Introspection
“Though the film focuses on the Catholic Church, much of its overarching point highlights a need for honest introspection”, wrote Jay Rohr from Film Obsessive, after the film premiered at a film festival in Chicago in September 2024
“Sins of Ireland’ isn’t a vitriolic condemnation of confession or religion for that matter. It’s more of a gentle urge for change. One that points out that not only should the church do better but that it can do better. The film does an excellent job of changing the way the world looks through the context of its tale. In that way, it reminds us how experiences influence perspectives,” Mr. Rohr observed.
A Documentary he Needed to Make
For filmmaker Alex Fegan, this was a documentary he felt he needed to make to learn more about where we have come from as a people, and where we are going.
“Growing up in Dublin in the 1990s, the grip of the Church on our collective psyche was loosening.
“I was at once intrigued by the rituals and appalled by the abuses of the Church. As the years went by, I found myself questioning everything about what the Church had meant in people’s lives over the decades and centuries, including what we may have gained or lost as people have moved away from religious traditions.
The Concept of Forgiveness
“I have always been fascinated by the concept of forgiveness, which I feel is one of the most fundamental aspects of what it means to be human. And when my son was on the altar making his first confession with the Parish Priest, as I observed this I went into a sort of daydream and wondered about this ancient rite of passage – to some this must seem absurd in the extreme, repulsive even, and to others it must be moving and sacred.
And so, I set out to speak with and understand priests in Ireland in the 21st Century through the prism of the confession box – these people about whom most of us know so little, yet have heard so much. Making the film taught me many things about them, myself and life itself.
If people get even a small bit as much from watching Sins of Ireland as I did from making it, I will be delighted,” said Mr. Fegan.
You can see a trailer of the film with a click on the link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DB2DehXlrwI
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