50 Fun Facts About Irish Movie

Who directed The Quiet Man, winning a record fourth Best Director Oscar?

John Ford won it only after Republic's boss, doubting the script, made him first shoot the Western Rio Grande with the same two stars.

Who stars opposite John Wayne in The Quiet Man?

Maureen O'Hara's family said The Quiet Man was her favourite film, and they played its music in her final hours in 2015.

In My Left Foot, what condition does Christy Brown have?

Christy Brown had cerebral palsy, and to play him Daniel Day-Lewis learned to write and paint with his feet.

My Left Foot was the directorial debut of which Irish filmmaker?

Jim Sheridan's crew had to wheel Day-Lewis around, lift him over equipment and even feed him, because the star stayed in character in his wheelchair.

Which Dublin writer's novel was The Commitments adapted from?

Roddy Doyle, a Dublin teacher tired of rejections, self-published the novel in 1987 before William Heinemann picked it up for the UK.

What kind of music does Jimmy Rabbitte's band play in The Commitments?

To cast Jimmy's soul band, Alan Parker auditioned dozens of local Dublin bands and even dragged street buskers in to try out.

Which future Oscar winner played guitarist Outspan Foster in The Commitments?

Glen Hansard left school at 13 to busk on Dublin's streets and had formed his band The Frames before filming began.

Which American singer does the band keep waiting for in The Commitments?

Wilson Pickett is the draw: veteran trumpeter Joey "The Lips" Fagan claims to have played with him and promises he will sing with the band.

Which song from Once won the Oscar for Best Original Song?

Falling Slowly won, but Marketa Irglova was ushered off before she could speak, so host Jon Stewart brought her back after the break for her speech.

Where does the Guy busk at the start of Once?

Grafton Street scenes were shot without permits and with a long lens.

What household appliance does the Girl ask the Guy to fix in Once?

The Girl returns the next day with her broken vacuum cleaner and tells the Guy she is a musician too, and they start playing together.

Which instrument does the Girl play in Once?

The piano is beyond the Girl's means, so she plays a display model in a music shop, and before leaving for London the Guy buys her one of her own.

In In Bruges, who does rookie hitman Ray accidentally kill on his first job?

Ray's bullet, meant for a priest in confession, kills a child, so boss Harry sends him and Ken to lie low in Bruges.

The Banshees of Inisherin is set during which war?

Civil War fighting on the mainland in 1923 stays in the background, an echo of the feud between two old friends on the island.

What does Colm threaten to do each time Padraic speaks to him in Banshees?

Colm means it: he does cut off one of his own fingers, the left index, and throws it at Padraic's door.

What is the name of Padraic's beloved miniature donkey in Banshees?

Jenny the donkey dies, so Padraic vows to burn down Colm's house, and the next afternoon he does.

Which instrument does Colm play in The Banshees of Inisherin?

Colm plays the fiddle and ends the friendship to spend his remaining years composing music he will be remembered for.

Which prize did Colin Farrell win at Venice for Banshees?

After the Volpi Cup, Colin Farrell earned his first Oscar nomination for Padraic, but Best Actor went to Brendan Fraser for The Whale.

Which Wexford town does Eilis leave behind in Brooklyn?

Eilis leaves Enniscorthy for a job in Brooklyn, but when her sister Rose dies she returns home and must choose which life to keep.

Who wrote the screenplay for Brooklyn?

Nick Hornby's script takes the story one step past the novel's open ending.

Who plays the captured British soldier Jody in The Crying Game?

Forest Whitaker's Jody shows IRA man Fergus a photo of his girlfriend Dil and asks him to look her up in London if he dies.

Who plays the title role in Neil Jordan's Michael Collins?

Liam Neeson's Michael Collins was judged so historically important that Ireland's censor passed it with a PG, letting parents decide if children could see it.

Which Hollywood star plays Kitty Kiernan in Michael Collins?

Julia Roberts's Kitty Kiernan is loved by both Collins and his best friend Harry Boland, who later breaks with Collins over the Treaty.

Which film about two Cork brothers won the 2006 Palme d'Or?

In The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Cork brothers Damien and Teddy fight the British side by side, then split over the 1921 Treaty and turn on each other.

In Sing Street, why does Conor form a band?

Conor forms a band to impress a girl, Raphina, and asks her to star in the band's first music video.

Which pop star co-wrote and sang Go Now for Sing Street?

Adam Levine first teamed up with John Carney on Begin Again, and came back to co-write Go Now for Sing Street.

Which American actor partners Brendan Gleeson's Garda sergeant in The Guard?

Don Cheadle plays FBI agent Wendell Everett, sent over a big cocaine deal, who cannot tell if Gleeson's sergeant is really dumb or really smart.

In Calvary, what does the confessor give Father James a week to do?

His abuser is dead, so the confessor plans to kill a good priest instead, giving Father James a week to put his affairs in order before dying.

Which Irish animation studio made the films Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers?

After Disney's Mulan, Tomm Moore and his college friends set out to make an animated feature from Irish art, and Cartoon Saloon grew from that plan.

Tomm Moore's 2009 debut feature tells the story of which object's creation?

To help finish the Book of Kells, young Brendan disobeys his abbot uncle and ventures beyond the monastery walls to gather nuts for ink.

What mythical creature is Ben's little sister revealed to be in Song of the Sea?

Ben's mute little sister is a selkie, half human and half seal like their vanished mother, and she must free the fairy folk from the goddess Macha.

In which Irish city is the animated film Wolfwalkers set?

Wolfwalkers is set in Kilkenny in 1650, where the Lord Protector summons an English hunter to wipe out the last wolves.

Which Irish director made Room, which won Brie Larson an Oscar?

Lenny Abrahamson sent Emma Donoghue a 10-page fan letter, and she backed him to direct.

What did The Quiet Girl become the first Irish film to earn in 2023?

The category needs non-English dialogue, so English-language Irish films can't compete, but The Quiet Girl, in Irish, earned the first Irish International Feature Oscar nod.

Which Claire Keegan novella became a 2024 film starring and produced by Cillian Murphy?

In Small Things Like These, coal merchant Bill Furlong finds a young woman in the convent's coal shed, though his wife warns there are things you have to ignore.

Who plays Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen's Hunger?

Michael Fassbender filmed the early scenes first, then took ten weeks to starve himself down for Bobby Sands's final days.

Which actor plays the priest who debates Bobby Sands in Hunger's famous long take?

Liam Cunningham moved into the star's Belfast flat before filming, and the two rehearsed the scene over and over.

Which festival prize did The Magdalene Sisters win in 2002?

The Golden Lion went to Peter Mullan's film after the Vatican's own newspaper denounced it as an angry provocation.

Angela's Ashes follows Frank McCourt's childhood in which city?

Limerick's Roden Lane slums had long gone, so Alan Parker built the lane as a Dublin set and used Cork's cobbled streets for period detail.

In Waking Ned, what kills the title character?

Ned dies from the shock of winning the lottery, ticket still in hand, so Jackie and Michael plot for the village to claim his winnings.

Where was Waking Ned, set in Ireland, actually filmed?

The Isle of Man offered tax breaks, one producer said, and its village of Cregneash doubled for Tullymore.

David Lean's Ryan's Daughter retells which French novel on the Dingle Peninsula?

Robert Bolt's script began as a Madame Bovary adaptation, and the film's savage reviews crushed David Lean, who made no film for 14 years.

Paul Greengrass's Bloody Sunday shared the Golden Bear with which animated film?

Spirited Away shared the Golden Bear, then won the Oscar, but Hayao Miyazaki stayed away from the ceremony in protest at the Iraq War.

In the film Kneecap, what is JJ's job?

JJ, a schoolteacher, is called in to interpret at Liam's police interrogation, then sets the boys' lyrics to music and becomes Kneecap's third member.

Robert Flaherty's 1934 docufiction Man of Aran was shot on which island?

Eamon de Valera attended the Dublin opening of the film.

What is Ireland's oldest continuously operating film studio?

It opened in Bray, County Wicklow, in 1958.

Which Irish actress earned an Oscar nomination at 13 for Atonement?

Saoirse Ronan played Briony, a 13-year-old would-be novelist whose lie about her sister's lover echoes through the rest of the film.

Brendan Gleeson won an Emmy for playing which statesman?

Winston Churchill was a role the Irishman hesitated over, so he and the producers ran a screen test first to see if it could work.

Which short film won playwright Martin McDonagh an Academy Award?

Six Shooter was Martin McDonagh's deliberate move from theatre into film, and its star Brendan Gleeson went on to lead his first feature, In Bruges.

Which 2003 Dublin black comedy stars Cillian Murphy, Colm Meaney and Colin Farrell?

Intermission opens with Colin Farrell's petty crook Lehiff flirting with a shop cashier, then punching her and robbing the till.