Irish

Ireland had hoped for Oscar glory but instead ended up the butt of jokes about drinking, fighting and incomprehensible accents as it claimed just a couple of the coveted golden statuettes.Just two awards out of 14 nominations was disappointment enough but Hollywood added insult to injury with national tropes that elicited eye rolls in Ireland.The host Jimmy Kimmel made a gag in the opening monologue that linked the “green wave” to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at last year’s ceremony. “Five Irish actors are nominated…

At Sunday night’s Oscars, The Banshees of Inisherin is up for nine awards. However, some feel it should be 10.The fisherman knits worn by Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson) throughout the film have gained something of a cult following, leading some to question … where is the best jumper award?Knitwear shops in Ireland have reported a spike in sales of traditional jumpers following the release of the film. On TikTok, there are videos of Gen Z scouring secondhand shops to find similar woollies, while the…

It’s a huge year for Ireland at the Oscars: from acting to directing to visual effects, Irish films, film-makers and stars have received 14 nominations. A quarter of the acting nominees – Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan – are Irish. And The Quiet Girl/An Cailín Ciúin is the first Irish-language film to be nominated for an Oscar. JJ Abrams put it succinctly: “Seven million people on that island and all of them are nominated.”The director and producer was speaking at the 17th…

‘How someone can inflict such sadistic brutality on another is beyond me.” So says Dublin ganglord Valentino “Val” Fagan (Rob McCarthy) when one of his underlings is raped – but it’s rich coming from someone seen executing his own men, dousing innocent security personnel in petrol and slapping his wife. But Patrick McKnight’s crime thriller isn’t overburdened in the self-awareness department – it’s too busy trying to romanticise the Irish capital as a tempestuous urban battlefield of cops and robbers. But with its…

Image: Well Go USAAfter a brutal home invasion in London—just after learning they’re finally expecting a much-wanted baby—a young couple sees a brighter future when they inherit a home in the Irish countryside. But not for nothing is this folk horror/psychological thriller/creature-feature blend titled Unwelcome.Directed by Jon Wright (Grabbers) and written by Mark Stay, Unwelcome stars Hannah John-Kamen (Ava Starr/Ghost in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and the upcoming Thunderbolts) as Maya, who’s nine months pregnant…

By Jake Coyle | Associated Press Though gently restrained and delicately crafted, “The Quiet Girl” has managed to make plenty of noise. Colm Bairead’s modestly scaled drama, his directorial debut, is the highest-grossing Irish-language film of all time. It bested “Belfast” at the Irish Film & Television Awards. And it’s nominated for best international film at the Academy Awards, a first for Ireland. It’s not hard to see why. Bairead’s sensitive and heartfelt film, which is debuting in many theaters Friday, is a…

Lyndsey McDougall, the singer of Belfast alt-punk band New Pagans, has spent years studying embroidery crafted by Irish women through the 19th and 20th centuries as part of research for her PhD. Through hours spent in the archives at museums and libraries examining centuries-old pieces, McDougall came to understand that the needlework told stories: of mothers raising funds for their families to emigrate and wives creating the material culture for their community’s organisations – and of women flexing their skills for…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freePaul Mescal is being credited for “unknowingly reviving” the Irish language at the Baftas red carpet. During the Sunday (19 February) night film awards show, the Aftersun actor delighted fans after he gave an interview in fluent Gaelic.Following the night’s events, a clip of Mescal’s interview has been making the rounds on social media, with many fans praising the 27-year-old Irish…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeThe Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh has revealed the film’s Irish crew disagreed with the name of a Bafta award category that the movie was nominated for. The 2023 Bafta Awards were held at London’s Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre on Sunday (19 February), as exceptional films and performances were honoured during the ceremony. Accepting the Outstanding…

Seven years after their exciting, abrasive debut single Clementine, Irish post-punks M(h)aol (pronounced male) have finally released their debut album, Attachment Styles. It’s a series of fearless moments that centre on intersectional feminism and reclamation of power, underpinned by a soundtrack of clattering drums and jagged, dissonant guitars.The artwork for Attachment StylesThe result is a record that is equally vulnerable, triumphant and cathartic. “I’m just the dumb bitch that left the party with you,” vocalist…