Venice Golden Lion goes to Woman Unknown, postwar film about ‘female body as battleground’
Saoirse Ronan misses out after premiering directorial debut at festival
Martin McDonagh
An Irish screen genius, raves for Robert Pattinson and early Oscar tips
Donald Clarke on what has gone down a storm in the opening week of Venice International Film Festival 2026
First Look review: Wild Horse Nine – Martin McDonagh’s film is powered by bromantic barbs and imperialist skulduggery
Venice film festival 2026: John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star as US agents in Chile as the CIA works to undermine Salvador Allende’s government
Saoirse Ronan to make her directorial debut at Venice film festival
New movies from Martin McDonagh, Danny Boyle and Werner Herzog will also take centre stage at Italian event
Domhnall Gleeson: ‘My life in Ireland means too much to me. It’s no sacrifice to live here’
The actor has carved out a place at the centre of the Hollywood film industry. But it comes second to his sense of home
Irish interest at Venice film festival 2026: Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard and more
The Venice event is, after Cannes, comfortably the second most important film festival on the calendar
Gary Lydon: Actor best known for Banshees of Inisherin dies aged 61
The actor, who also had roles in The Clinic and Love/Hate, was born in London to Irish parents and returned to Wexford as a child
Oscars 2027: Which films will be up for best picture? Donald Clarke predicts the nominees
From Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey to Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, a look at next year’s potential best-picture contenders
Oscars 2026: All of Ireland’s Academy Award wins, including two doubles and a triple
If Jessie Buckley wins the leading-actress award for Hamnet this weekend, she’ll join an illustrious group of Irish winners
Chris Walley: ‘There is a degree of living like a monk – but a fun monk’
The Young Offenders star has been focused on a demanding stage role in London, but the hit series is calling the Cork actor home
Thomas Moore and the Transatlantic, 1800-1840: A fluent voice and an open mind
A new account of Moore as a writer attuned to debates on gender, education, boxing, empire, enslavement and agricultural trade
Druid Theatre: Fifty Years by Patrick Lonergan – a thorough and persuasive account of Druid’s first half century
The book’s main shortcoming is its hyper focus on the founders of Druid at the expense of a broader theatrical framework
The Séance of Blake Manor: Irish-made game getting rave reviews has Irishness in its DNA
Spooky Doorway’s mystery game is a cross between Cluedo and a Martin McDonagh play - perfect for dark evenings
Colin Farrell: ‘I’m finding the 40s to be the most meaningful and beautiful chapter in my life’
You don’t so much interview Farrell as curate his conversation. A professional down to his neat fingertips, he gives you, in 20 minutes or so, enough material for a smallish book. It is 25 years since Farrell made the jump from Ireland to Los Angeles with Tigerland. His early roguish demeanour has matured into a more complex charisma.
Brendan Gleeson: ‘I can’t go into a pub any more. I really miss it’
With The Weir, the star returns to the stage after a 10-year absence. It’s a play he loves for its portrayal of the Irish as a people
The Pillowman review: Anthracite-black comedy. The most appalling crimes
Martin McDonagh’s play, in a disciplined if occasionally muted Gate production, makes discomfort the point
The Pillowman, at the Gate Theatre: ‘Another level of dark, even for Martin McDonagh’
Fra Fee and Ryan Dylan, who star in the Dublin venue’s summer production, on cancel culture and comedy
Ireland event guide: Lana Del Rey, Alanis Morissette and the other best things to do this week
Event guide for the week June 28th-July 4th: The best movies, music, art and more coming your way this week
‘I always had an affinity with Wolfe Tone. Maybe because I was told I wasn’t Irish’
Kwaku Fortune’s new play, The Black Wolfe Tone, has just opened in New York. It’s a very personal story for the actor and writer
Domhnall Gleeson on nepo babies: ‘I’ve been so lucky. It’s important you can acknowledge it. Otherwise you’re lying to yourself’
The actor on ‘the Harry Potter thing’, his role in Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, and the gift that Tom Cruise keeps sending him
Magic movies: The 25 best comedies of the past 25 years – in reverse order
From Borat to Banshees of Inisherin, here’s the best comedies from the last 25 years
Irish Theatre in the Twenty-First Century: Development and diversity – Deserving of a wide readership
This comprehensive and wonderfully written book serves to remind us of how much outstanding Irish theatre has been produced in the past quarter-century
The Pillowman review: Martin McDonagh’s early play gets a pin-sharp, meticulously controlled staging from Lyric and Prime Cut
Theatre: Emma Jordan directs a well-balanced ensemble cast in the playwright’s depiction of a writer suspected of child murder in a totalitarian state
Bodkin review: toe-curling paddywhackery from Barack and Michelle Obama plumbs the diddly dee depths
Netflix dramedy thinks it is critiquing cliches about Ireland when in fact it is adding to the stockpile
Kerry Condon: ‘Sometimes people look at me but they can’t place me. And that’s what I want to be – an actor’
The intensely private star likes to stay out of the limelight, despite being the most successful Irish actress at the global box office
Own a bit of cinematic history: The Banshees of Inisherin pub up for sale
The Galway pub that contains the rebuilt set of JJ Devine’s from the movie is on the market
Everyone loves Ireland! Why is Irish culture so hot right now?
From cinema and theatre to television, folk music and literature, Ireland is enjoying unprecedented creative boom
Lily Allen on working with Martin McDonagh: I would say things that might shock people, and he would be smiling
Allen, who stars in McDonagh’s play The Pillowman, on turning to acting, dealing with addiction and her disillusionment with the music industry
Low lie the Fields of Peckham Rye: Martin McDonagh and the London Irish
Critics who accuse McDonagh of paddywhackery miss the point. Beauty Queen’s authenticity is in its distortion
Banshees of Inisherin spent €213,455 on animals and handlers
Production received Section 481 corporation tax credits of between €5 and €10m
Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen review: Deep psychological study of guilt and grief
Production reveals itself as a taut theatrical thriller that leaves aside the tired tropes of his early Oirish comedies
Oscars 2023: Was that the real Jenny, and nine other key questions about this year’s Academy Awards
Including: Was The Banshees of Inisherin ever going to win anything, and what was Colin Farrell’s SNL remark about?
Oscars 2023: Ireland wins two Academy Awards – and delivers one of the great Oscar moments
Everything Everywhere All at Once has an extraordinary night at the 95th Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars
Oscars 2023 as it happened: Everything Everywhere All at Once cleans up
All the drama from the 95th Academy Awards as The Banshees of Inisherin and An Cailín Ciúin brought the ‘green wave’ of Irish film to Hollywood’s champagne carpet
Crosswords & Puzzles
Crosswords & puzzles to keep you challenged and entertained
Common Ground
How does a post-Brexit world shape the identity and relationship of these islands
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