Jessie Buckley (b 1989) Count on Buckley being way up the chart if we repeat the exercise in a few years' time. Star turn: As Officer Rhodes in Bridesmaids.ģ8. Chris O'Dowd (b 1979) The comedian and author is the only star to have played football with Roscommon at intercounty level (as a minor) who went on to star alongside Steve Carell, Jack Black and Melissa McCarthy. Star turn: The woman who loves James Mason in Odd Man Out.ģ9. Kathleen Ryan (1922-1985) Ryan, a notable figure from a prominent republican family – and the subject of a famous portrait by Louis le Brocquy – was a striking star in American and British films during the postwar years. Star turn: With Nicolas Cage in Black Death thriller Season of the Witch.Ĥ0. Robert Sheehan (b 1988) The Cork actor has flitted between hit TV (The Misfits, Umbrella Academy), indies (Cherrybomb, Mute), and big-budget franchise pictures (Mortal Instruments, Mortal Engines). Star turn: As James Joyce's muse in Nora.Ĥ1. Her steady intelligence is put to good use in Waking Ned and Beautiful Creatures. Susan Lynch (b 1971) Never fully getting her due, Lynch has been quietly outshining more celebrated actors in film roles for a quarter of a century. Star turn: As a republican prisoner in Silent Grace.Ĥ2. She has worked with Jackie Chan (The Foreigner), Aidan Gillen (Rose Plays Julie) and John Turturro (The Luzhin Defence). Orla Brady (b 1961) Dublin-born actor has collaborated three times with director Mary McGuckian, on Words Upon the Window Pane, The Price of Desire, and A Girl from Mogadishu. Star turn: Almost makes sense of Woody Allen's Match Point.Ĥ3. Jonathan Rhys Meyers (b 1977) Enormously good-looking matinee idol who cut a swathe through the new century after doing away with the lead in Michael Collins. Star turn: In December Bride's love triangle with Saskia Reeves and Ciarán Hinds.Ĥ4. Donal McCann (1943-1999) Abbey star who went on to make films with Bob Quinn, John Huston, Neil Jordan and Bernardo Bertolucci. Star turn: The sober centre of The Commitments.Ĥ5. Barely a year has gone by when she hasn't caught a decent movie role by the throat. Maria Doyle Kennedy (b 1964) Kennedy, as much a singer as an actor, was one of those who made the most of early exposure on The Commitments. Star turn: As Holly in Neil Marshall's terrifying The Descent.Ĥ6. Has subsequently starred in Ella Enchanted and Brooklyn. Nora-Jane Noone (b 1984) Galway actor made her screen debut in The Magdalene Sisters. Star turn: Coping with the apocalypse in The Survivalist.Ĥ7. Generally the most charming presence in any scene. Martin McCann (b 1983) The fresh-faced Belfast man, who was flung into the big time by Richard Attenborough in Closing the Ring, graduated to strong roles in Shadow Dancer and Maze. He played the young Christy Brown in My Left Foot and the titular killer in The Young Poisoner's Handbook. Hugh O'Conor (b 1975) The Dublin actor was nine when he landed his first big role, opposite Liam Neeson in the 1985 movie Lamb. Star turn: The career-making A Date for Mad Mary.Ĥ9. She has since confirmed her potential in The Hole in the Ground. Seána Kerslake (b 1990) Kerslake's turn in A Date for Mad Mary announced an actor who could interweave emotional fragility with sharp comic timing. Sadly, the great Greer Garson – once erroneously credited as having been born in Castlewellan, Co Down – doesn’t quite meet the regulations (though her grandfather would be eligible for the national football squad).ĥ0. Good luck keeping them out of the top five in either. So we must conclude they can fairly compete both in this race and in any assessment of English film actors. We know that Daniel Day-Lewis, son of Anglo-Irish poet laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, was born and raised in leafy bits of London. Most biographers make uncommitted humming noises when asked if Peter O’Toole was born in Leeds or, as he often suggested, in “Connemara”. Can one great performance get you to the top? Can someone in their 20s really complete fairly against an actor who worked steadily for 60 years? Who gets to be Irish? That last question is particularly worrisome here, as two of the top seeds spent their early lives across the Irish Sea. Drawing up a list of the best Irish film actors, the criteria are unavoidably slippery.
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