Alan in Belfast: Born That Way – a couple’s commitment to radical inclusion comes full circle in this film that celebrates Patrick and Gladys Lydon (screened in Ulster Museum on Saturday 28 June as part of Docs Ireland) #docsireland7

Born That Way is a tender film that traces back Patrick Lydon’s journey from reporting on the Woodstock festival in America, to finding love with his soulmate Gladys in Ireland, and their joint selfless devotion to fostering ways of people of all abilities to live and work together, taking responsibility and contributing to the extent they can, realising their potential in a positive and culturally rich environment.

Patrick and Gladys set up the rural Camphill Community in Ballytobin, County Kilkenny before investing their time and energy in nearby urban Callan. Patrick Lydon describes the early Camphill communities as outliers to Ireland’s programmes of institutionalisation, using a social model that takes account of medical issues but finds ways to work and live together.

While sectarianism and racism are forms of prejudice much spoken about in modern Ireland – and there are many others I’m not listing – ableism is perhaps the most deliberately overlooked. Reasonable adjustments are sometimes made if someone goes out of their way to request them. Rarely is accessibility baked in from the outset. Rarely is the distinction dropped between carers and service users to create a radical inclusion where everyone is treated as a colleague and coworker.

Éamon Little’s film avoids steering into the ditch of hagiography, partly by showing so many clips of community in action – scenes where everyone becomes a star as they garden or build – and partly because it’s Gladys that we see adapting to Patrick’s failing health and including him in conversations and decisions in the same way we witnessed him doing with others earlier in the film.

Patrick and Gladys react to his diagnosis of Motor Neurone Disease by applying the same practices and principles that they had been living out for four and a half decades. Their investment in community was repaid when other people gathered around to create a modest accessible home in which he could live and be cared for.

A natural encourager, the pattern of Patrick effusively thanking the colleagues he’s working with on the extended garden is repeated as his health declines and without fail we hear him thank Gladys and carers for hoisting him out of a chair or into bed. He’s a man with a deep inner joy and peace, and a consistency even under pressure, that is incredibly winsome.

Born That Way celebrates the life of Patrick Lydon. The moving documentary also challenges viewers to find their own ways to build on the legacy he cultivated in Camphill Communities and beyond, to be blessed by others while in turn blessing them.

The 98-minute documentary is being screened in the Ulster Museum on Saturday 27 June at 11:30 as part of the Docs Ireland festival of international documentary film (which continues until Sunday 29 June).