Brian Ó Tiomáin traces the timeline of Breege Rowley’s debut feature All Our Yesterdays.
A love letter to County Mayo, All Our Yesterdays is addressed specifically to the town of Swinford. In choosing to tell the story over a period of two-and-a-half centuries, debut director Breege Rowley delivers a feature-length documentary that is both epic and decidedly local. Drawing on her extensive skills as an editor, Rowley curates a bold sense of continuity as she weaves a narrative that starts 250 years ago and spans generations.
In a time of land confiscation and severe religious persecution under the Penal Laws, many were dispossessed and became tenant farmers, barely surviving. They were often on short leases and could be evicted at the whim of the landlord — often an absentee, living in England. Music plays an important role in their story. Mayo has deep cultural connection with traditional music. There are many songs from the region — in Irish and English — which tell the stories of the day more authentically than any history book could. They likely provided a measure of solace to those who both composed and sang them.
The local historians telling their stories, in rich Mayo accents, bear witness to their ancestors who faced fierce hardship during those troubled times. One such speaker is Michael Brabazon, a direct descendant of the founder of the town of Swinford in the late 1700s. The Brabazons appear to have been benevolent landlords. In particular, Sir William Brabazon, a Member of Parliament for Mayo, did much to build up Swinford between 1803 and 1840, including constructing several buildings of note. The tax on daylight in dwellings brings a wry humour to the film, as people in the era resorted to using a half-door to evade the tax. It was this tax that spawned the phrase “daylight robbery”.
The photography of DOP Richard Kendrick which include impressive drone shots, is interspersed by archival materials — old photographs, cartoons, maps and buildings that enrich the narrative.
Rowley embeds the story with deep compassion for the people who lived and died during the famine, as well as the countless generations lost to emigration. Many grew up in Mayo knowing they would be unable to remain at home, as there would be insufficient employment for all but a fraction of the many large families. This troubled and tragic history spawned the phrase “Mayo, God help us” — a loss that also extended to the native language. The narrator of All Our Yesterdays, Nora McBurney, is a young American woman whose family emigrated to America. Nora felt an enduring impulse to return to the ‘home place’.
There is in this film a sense of resilience and community which has endured to the present day. One of the themes of All Our Yesterdays is that we are a product of those who went before us. The deep affection for home in the film is evident throughout the many local testimonies and contributions. The final credits pay poignant tribute to a number of people who passed on during the production of the film.
As a reviewer, I was interested in seeing this film because my mother and grandmother came from Clonbur, near the Galway-Mayo border. Their experience of growing up would have been similar to that of the people of Swinford. I often wondered how my great-grandfather, born in 1847, survived the devastation of the famine.
Swinford Workhouse was designed to accommodate 700 people at most — but during the famine year of 1847, the number rose to 1,900, many of whom would not have survived. When I asked my great-grandfather’s daughter (my grandmother) if people talked much of Parnell or the Fenians — or even the famine — when she was young, she said the person most often mentioned was Michael Davitt. The film pays due tribute to Davitt, who emigrated from Mayo at a young age and suffered great hardship. On his return to Ireland, he prioritised a visit to the famine grave in Swinford. Davitt recognised the importance of the Land League, and in his lifetime he personified the spirit of his native country.
A labour of love, All Our Yesterdays has been many years in the making — and, in doing so, Breege Rowley has achieved something quite impressive on a minimal budget.
All Our Yesterdays premiered as part of the Féile Na Samhna celebrations, Swinford.
