Sean Dooley takes to the pulpit for his review of Sins of Ireland.
A quietly powerful perspective on faith, power and personal reckoning, Sins of Ireland is explored through the eyes of those who have long mediated others’ guilt, yet are seldom asked to confront their own. It is not a cold institutional judgement — rather, this film presents a deeply human, almost confessional journey, interspersed with a critique of the very institution these priests represent.
Where Sins of Ireland truly excels, is its insistence on interiority. Rather than stacking up statistics or scandal, director Alex Fegan places the camera inches from his subjects’ eyes. He invites us to consider: who ministers to the ministers? These priests — symbols of an institution often accused of moral failure — are revealed as men of flesh and conscience. Yet the film never lets sympathy slide into sentimentality. The editing of these interviews does not allow us to linger on the priests or the sympathy we may feel in that moment — instead, the narrative moves swiftly into the next moral question: guilt, organisation versus priest, and the uneasy tension between personal accountability and systemic complicity.
As a technical feat, this documentary is outstanding: the sound design spotlights the slightest rustle of cassocks, the creak of wooden pews, the overlay of singing as it cuts between interviews. The score — sparse strings and distant chants — echoes the liminal space between confession booth and soul. The editing is judicious, never rushing; each segment feels earned.
For those who seek a polemic, Sins of Ireland may be too gentle toward its subjects. But it is precisely this empathy that makes the critique so disarming. By humanising the keepers of conscience, Fegan forces us to reconsider the true locus of sin — not merely the failures of an institution, but the frailties of the individuals it comprises.
In the end, Sins of Ireland does not offer easy absolution or a clear call to arms. Instead, it reminds us that confession — whether to God, to another person, or to oneself — is less about punishment and more about bearing witness. And in listening to these priests confess their own uncertainties, we may find a deeper understanding of forgiveness — and of ourselves.
Sins of Ireland in cinemas 18th April 2025.
