Out on the open waters, there is nothing but “freedom and tranquillity”, says Mark O’Connor during Dragon Hearts (RTÉ, Monday 6:30pm), an earnest documentary about how the sport of dragon boat racing has been embraced by those with experience of cancer in Ireland.
Dragon boat racing is ancient water sport that originated in China more than 2,500 years ago – but in Ireland, its history is recent. It was popularised here by the Plurabelle Paddlers – a group whose lives have been affected by cancer and who set up the country’s first dragon boat club in 2010.
We are introduced to Mairéad Ní Nuadháin, a former TV presenter who recalls her introduction to the freedom of the open waters and to Plurabelle Paddlers, named after Anna Livia Plurabelle, from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake – a character who symbolises the “enteral and universal female”.
“I’d never heard of Plurabelle,” she says. “One day I got a tap on the shoulder: she told me about this amazing club at Grand Canal Dock. Would be interested in joining?”
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She signed up – and dragon boat racing has been part of her life through her cancer journey and beyond. Word got around, and soon, people who had cancer (and their families) had embraced dragon boat racing around Ireland.
They include Cork native Mark O’Connor, for whom rowing has become an escape hatch from worries about his health. “I do think of mortality,” he says. “Mortality can be short-lived or far-reaching. I’d prefer it to be far-reaching for now.”
The documentary also introduces Ann Marie O’Sullivan, who underwent chemotherapy during the pandemic – every bit as difficult as you would imagine – and has gone on to write and illustrate a book for children. As with everyone, her diagnosis blindsided her. “How do you tell your children, who are four and seven, that you have cancer?” she asks.
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Dragon Hearts is deeply moving, but as is often the case with RTÉ documentaries, it is oddly structured and lacks coherence. It starts as a film about dragon boat racing, but halfway through this element of the story is essentially set to one side and the focus is exclusively on the experience of those with cancer.
It also tries to cram in too much – introducing us to people from Donegal, Sligo, Cork, Dublin and elsewhere who have had cancer. Each of their experiences is heartbreaking and compelling and surely deserves longer screen time. Squeezed into a single 50-minute documentary, one story runs into another – a disservice both to them and the viewer.
