“All Our Yesterdays” UK Premiere Film Screening

“All Our Yesterdays”

The Voices Of A Town. The Story Of A Nation. A poetic and visually moving journey into the soul of a community — its memories, its people, its spirit — woven together through images, voices and the places that shaped them.

“A Love Letter to County Mayo” – Film Ireland

Synopsis

All Our Yesterdays is an international feature documentary that tells the story of a Mayo community whose lived experience now connects more than 70 million people of Irish descent worldwide. Spanning over two centuries marked by famine, conflict, migration and profound social change, the film draws on cine reels, photographs, letters, music and personal testimony — a rare archive of ordinary people navigating extraordinary moments.

Guided by the voices of elders, musicians, archivists and storytellers, the film brings viewers through Ireland’s story as seen from within the community itself. These voices illuminate daily life, community bonds, quiet endurance and the will to succeed that carried families through hardship, prejudice and political struggle. Intimate personal reflections reveal the emotional landscape of departure, belonging and renewal — experiences still felt across the global diaspora today.

Narration is provided by Irish-American Nora McBurney, whose grandmother emigrated from Swinford. Her voice carries the perspective of a descendant returning to the source, expressing the connection felt by millions who inherit these stories across oceans.

As the narrative moves toward the present, All Our Yesterdays shows how the experiences of one small Irish town shaped generations who left — and millions around the world who now seek a deeper understanding of where their family story began.

“One town. Over two hundred and fifty years. Seventy million descendants.”

Film Length: 90mins

What the Producer, Director says…

“Every story has a beginning. The journey behind All Our Yesterdays began with the loss of a family’s cine film collection. It was heartbreaking to think that these precious records of everyday life had disappeared forever. I realised they were not simply images from the past — they were living echoes of people whose stories had shaped a community, a region, and generations far beyond Ireland’s shores.

This film tells the story of Swinford, a small town in County Mayo — but it is not really a story about one town. It is a story about the more than seventy million people around the world who carry a fragment of this story with them: in a surname, a half-remembered address, a photograph in a drawer, a grandmother’s accent that never quite faded.

I made All Our Yesterdays because I believe that when we understand where we come from, we understand who we are. Over more than a decade, this film grew from a discovery into a documentary, and then into a U.S. tour  and now a UK Premiere at The Irish Cultural Centre in London.. Thank you for taking the time to come and see it.”

Breege Rowley Producer & Director, All Our Yesterdays

“Every member of the Irish Diaspora family has a place where their story began.  All Our Yesterdays is a journey back to one of those places.”

This film is not a history lesson. It’s a mirror. Audiences do not watch All Our Yesterdays to learn facts about a town they may have never visited — they watch it to recognise their own family in someone else’s. A letter to New York or England. A photograph that survived a fire. An accent that never quite left a grandmother’s voice. The specificity of Swinford is exactly what makes the film so universal: the more precisely it tells one town’s story, the more clearly a diaspora audience sees their own.

Awards for All Our Yesterdays

Best Documentary (Boston Indie fim Festival); 

Outstanding Excellence (Documentaries Without Borders Film Festival); 

Honourable Mention (East Village New York Film Festival.)