Paying voluntary social insurance contributions having left Ireland

I left Ireland in 2018 and reside outside the EU (and also not residing in any country that has social insurance-related agreements with the Republic of Ireland). It seems that I've misunderstood entirely the subject of paying voluntary social insurance contributions. I thought at the time that I had a period of 5 years within which I could buy back those five years while not having the opportunity to contribute further going forward, paying annual contributions on a year-on-year basis up until retirement age.

I've now discovered that I could have applied within that timeframe to make ongoing annual contribution payments. Having long past the five year rule, is there any leeway on this? Has anyone ever made a late application to the Department of Social Welfare in order to be permitted to make voluntary payments. I left Ireland 8 years ago.

EDIT: My interrogation of AI is telling me that its highly unlikely that the Dept. of Social Welfare will entertain a very, very late application. It says that my only other option is to return to Ireland and work - not something I would ordinarily want to do - but if there's no other way!
AI suggesting I would either need to work for 1 week (earning a minimum of 38 euro) or be self employed and invoice at least 5,500 euro. I'm not thinking cynically here - I want to work within the requirements - but at the same time, it would suit me to just achieve the minimums in order to get back on track. I've built a life elsewhere that I would want to get back to! I've emailed DSW on this anyway but is there anything I haven't considered with this? Or maybe you can tell me AI has misled me (it's often wrong)?