By Tom Deignan
Maggie’s Oscar Moment?
Academy Award nominations were just announced and it looks like the March 15 ceremonies will have a distinctly Irish flavor – though not as much as it should!
Jessie Buckley, who earned a Golden Globe in the Best Actress category for her powerful role as Agnes Hathaway in Hamnet, is nominated for an Academy Award for the same role. (Hamnet also won the Golden Globe Award for “Best Motion Picture – Drama.)
However, Paul Mescal – as Agnes’ husband, the famous playwright William Shakespeare – also nominated for a Golden Globe (for Best Supporting Actor), lost out to Stellan Skarsgård, who won for his performance in Sentimental, was not nominated for an Academy Award, as many expected.
But the real Irish fan favorite on Oscar night should be Maggie O’Farrell.
Born in Coleraine, Derry, O’Farrell also spent part of her youth in Dublin, before building a career as a novelist.
O’Farrell reached superstar literary status with her 2020 best-seller Hamnet.
Having co-written the film script with Hamnet director Chloe Zhao, O’Farrell received a Best Screenplay (Adapted) Oscar nomination.
Like O’Farrell’s novel, the Hamnet movie is based on the life of William Shakespeare and his wife. Their child, named Hamnet, died in 1596, likely from a pandemic-style plague. (O’Farrell new book Land, coming out in June, is a historical epic set in 1865 Ireland in the aftermath of the Great Famine).
O’Farrell’s Hamnet novel explores the grief mainly from Agnes’ perspective, and speculates that the tragedy influenced one of William Shakespeare’s greatest plays, Hamlet.
Irish actress Jessie Buckley (who portrays Agnes) already has an Oscar nomination (from 2022’s The Lost Daughter), as does Kildare-native Paul Mescal (for Aftersun in 2023).
Perhaps the most powerful Irish moment in all of the movies getting strong Academy Award consideration can be found in Sinners.
Set in the steamy U.S. deep south, Sinners features Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers.
In one scene, a group of villagers shows off a different side of their personalities amidst an explosive rendition of “The Rocky Road to Dublin” performed by the Irish trad group The High Kings and sung by none other than the Irish actor in the scene Jack O’Connell.
Unfortunately, Oscar nominations only go to “Original” songs.
From Belfast to the Wild West
After starring in the critically-acclaimed Belfast detective drama The Fall, X Files icon Gillian Anderson has apparently taken a liking to Irish projects.
She is currently starring in two very different TV shows with prominent Irish characters.
First, Anderson returns to Northern Ireland in Trespasses, set at the height of “the Troubles” in the 1970s.
Based on a novel of the same name by Louise Kennedy, Trespasses looks at the community-wide fallout when a Catholic teacher and (married) Protestant lawyer embark upon an unexpected romantic affair.
Trespasses was made for Britain’s Channel 4 network, though is expected to be available though a U.S. streaming service soon.
Until then, fire up your Netflix account and watch Gillian Anderson in the neo-Western The Abandons. Set in the 19th Century American west, Anderson plays a trailblazing woman who has managed to become a success despite her husband’s death and the pervasive sexism of the time period.
Conflicts ensue when an Irish immigrant named Fiona Nolan (played by Game of Thrones star Leha Headey) builds a home for her family on contested land.
The Abandons, which also features Dublin-born Aisling Franciosi, was created by Kurt Sutter, best known for the biker soap opera Sons of Anarchy, which also had a long story arc in its third season set in Ireland..
McMullen Family Reunion
Somehow it’s been 30 years since Ed Burns wrote and directed a little movie called The Brothers McMullen.
Burns, whose father Edward J. Burns, was a sergeant in the New York Police Department (NYPD) for 28 years, and later became the department’s media spokesperson, and whose mother was born in Westmeath, famously spent just $25,000 to screen his New York Irish flick at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury prize.
All sorts of raves followed when audiences flocked to this comedy drama that also introduced the world to Connie Britton, who played the long-suffering wife of Jack McMullen.
Burns went on to write and direct a dozen movies including She’s the One and Purple Violents, as well as star in films like Alex Cross and Saving Private Ryan. And his father’s background directly inspired Ed Burns’ crime drama series Public Morals, which focused on a “cop family.”
Now, Burns and his famous first film family are back – most of them anyway – in The Family McMullen.
The film was released for a single day in theaters last year, and now streams on HBO Max.
Finbar “Barry” McMullen (Burns) and his devout-Catholic brother Patrick (Mike McGlone) return, as does Connie Britton’s Molly, though not her onetime husband Jack. Barry now has twenty-something children of his own in The Family McMullen, which also stars Brian D’Arcy James and Tracee Ellis Ross.
Caitriona’s Irish Sensibility
Three generations of Irish acting talent are teaming up to bring a literary classic to the screen.
Outlander star and perennial Golden Globe nominee Catriona Balfe will star in a new screen adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility.
Balfe will play Mrs. Dashwood, the widow raising three daughters who struggle with life, love and England’s strict class system.
Starring alongside Balfe (who has appeared in movies such as Belfast and Ford vs. Ferrari) is stage and screen legend Fiona Shaw, seen most recently in TV hits such as Killing Eve, Fleabag and Bad Sisters.
This latest take on Sense and Sensibility will also star Daisy Edgar-Jones (Paul Mescal’s co-star in Normal People) as well as an up-and-coming Irish actress named Bodhi Rae Breathnach.
Look for Sense & Sensibility in theaters Fall 2026.
Murphy’s Zombies & Gangsters
Since winning the 2024 Best Actor Oscar for Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy has starred in a pair of small-scale dramas.
First there was Small Things Like These, about secrets in a small Irish village, and based on Claire Keegan’s celebrated novel.
More recently Murphy grew a graying beard to star in Steve, as a teacher at a British school for troubled teens.
A silly rumor whirling around the Internet recently suggested that Murphy had not only shot a film playing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, but that legends like Quentin Tarantino were calling it the greatest acting they’d ever seen.
What Murphy is actually doing next is returning to big productions about Zombies and gangsters.
First there is 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the fourth flick in this ongoing series (all so far directed by Danny Boyle) which was filmed at the same time as 28 Years Later, released back in June 2025.
Bone Temple, directed by Nia DaCosta (Candyman, The Marvels), was just released, and also features Irish actor Jack O’Connell as well as Ralph Fiennes.
Further down the road for Cillian Murphy there is the much-anticipated Peaky Blinders movie The Immortal Man.
Steven Knight, who created the brilliant English-Irish crime show (currently streaming on Netflix) has also written the movie, which stars Murphy as well as fellow Irish thespians such as Barry Keoghan, Ned Dennehy and Packy Lee.
…And for the Kids
Nicola Coughlan and Liam Neeson are both working on kid-friendly movies.
After breaking out with roles in Derry Girls and Bridgerton, Galway-born actress Nicola Coughlan is going to put her vocal chords to work in the animated film GOAT, which is about a walking talking goat (Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin) who wants to play basketball and (you guessed it) become The Greatest of All Time. (Hence the title)
Coughlan will provide the voice for what is described as an “ostrich roarball player.” Other stars who will be speaking up in GOAT – which hits theaters in February – are Patton Oswalt, Nick Kroll, and another Stranger Things actor David Harbour alongside actual NBA star Steph Curry.
Meanwhile, having conquered serious drama and kidnapping thrillers, Liam Neeson now seems ready to dominate comedy. After his success opposite Pamela Anderson in the Naked Gun reboot, look for Neeson in the April release Four Kids Walk Into a Bank.
Neeson plays a beloved grandpa with a shady past, whose granddaughter enlists her pals to solve a serious problem that has arisen.
Four kids will be directed by Irish American South Boston native Frankie Shaw, star of TV shows like Mr. Robot and SMILF, who is making her debut behind the camera.
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