Ireland and the Irish
This is a list of films, both historical and fictional, about Ireland, its history, its people (at home and abroad), its legends and folklore.
The list is intended for reference, not necessarily as recommendation.
Note: The list is in random order with films being added continually. It includes documentaries, short films and TV productions as well as feature films. Please use the site's filters or the links provided below if you want to view certain types of film only:
Feature films Films made for TV Mini-series TV Series
Documentaries Short films
Drama History Biography Comedy Crime
100 Films for St Patrick's Day
IRA, the Troubles, Anglo-Irish Conflict
Irish Language productions - as per IMDb, bilingual films/tv productions will also appear in this list, as will films with only a few words of Irish if the language is listed on the film's page.
Titles filmed in Ireland - this is a separate list of additional films/tv productions, which are not set in Ireland and which do not have an Irish interest. The Irish filming locations can either represent fictional places or stand in for real locations in other countries.
The list is intended for reference, not necessarily as recommendation.
Note: The list is in random order with films being added continually. It includes documentaries, short films and TV productions as well as feature films. Please use the site's filters or the links provided below if you want to view certain types of film only:
Feature films Films made for TV Mini-series TV Series
Documentaries Short films
Drama History Biography Comedy Crime
100 Films for St Patrick's Day
IRA, the Troubles, Anglo-Irish Conflict
Irish Language productions - as per IMDb, bilingual films/tv productions will also appear in this list, as will films with only a few words of Irish if the language is listed on the film's page.
Titles filmed in Ireland - this is a separate list of additional films/tv productions, which are not set in Ireland and which do not have an Irish interest. The Irish filming locations can either represent fictional places or stand in for real locations in other countries.
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2012 titles
- DirectorNeil JordanStarsLiam NeesonAidan QuinnJulia RobertsNeil Jordan's historical biopic of Irish revolutionary Michael Collins, the man who led a guerrilla war against the UK, helped negotiate the creation of the Irish Free State, and led the National Army during the Irish Civil War.
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisPete PostlethwaiteAlison CrosbieAn Irish man's coerced confession to an I.R.A. bombing he did not commit results in the imprisonment of his father as well. Meanwhile, a British lawyer fights to clear their names and free them.
- DirectorAlan ParkerStarsEmily WatsonRobert CarlyleJoe BreenAn Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.
- DirectorJim SheridanStarsDaniel Day-LewisBrenda FrickerAlison WhelanChristy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
- DirectorJoel SchumacherStarsCate BlanchettColin FarrellBrenda FrickerAn Irish journalist writes a series of stories about drug dealers.
- DirectorJohn BoormanStarsBrendan GleesonAdrian DunbarSean McGinleyThe real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland with his team, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the I.R.A., the U.V.F., and members of his own team.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsBarry WardFrancis MageeAileen HenryDuring the Depression, Jimmy Gralton returns home to Ireland after ten years of exile in America. Seeing the levels of poverty and oppression, the activist in him reawakens and he looks to re-open the dance hall that led to his deportation.
- DirectorPat MurphyStarsEwan McGregorSusan LynchAndrew ScottDublin, 1904, James Joyce chats up Nora Barnacle, a hotel maid recently come from Galway. She enchants him with her frank, uninhibited manner, and before long, he's convinced her to come with him to Trieste.
- DirectorPamela Mason WagnerStarsLiam NeesonGabriel ByrneSeán T. Ó MeallaighA fascinating story of the truth behind the legend and history of St Patrick. He was Welsh and even though he was thought to be Irish. "Patrick" is released in time for St. Patrick's Day (March 17, 2004) His life is remarkable and his story will be aired on television in "Patrick," an hour-long docudrama airing on Hallmark Channel. "Patrick" will shed light on one of the best-loved and least-understood icons of world religion. This special will feature the world reknown voices of two of Ireland's incredible top actors: with narration by Liam Neeson (aka Schindler's List & Rob Roy) and also Gabriel Byrne supplying the voice of Patrick. There is also an on-air commentary provided by renowned Irish-American author Frank McCourt, who gives insight on how a foreign evangelical would have interacted with the Irish. The story of the real St. Patrick is a fabulous mix of part adventure tale and part spiritual awakening. This portrayal of Patrick who lived in the fifth century was shot on location in Ireland, using actors and actresses in period dress to recreate scenes from Patrick's life. He was born into an upper class patrician family in Roman Britain. When Patrick was an adolescent he was captured by slave traders and sold into captivity in Ireland. After almost six years as a slave Patrick experienced a religious awakening that inspired him to make his escape from Ireland. After his safe return to his homeland Patrick trained for the priesthood. Patrick decided to return to Ireland, where he was a slave, to preach a doctrine of love, tolerance and redemption. His radical ideas were suspect and he attracted the censure of the Church establishment in Roman Britain and he was henceforth branded as a renegade. Patrick refused to compromise this commitment and soon won the respect and love of the Irish and even the finally the reluctant support of his detractors. He started out as a slave an eventually became a liberator, who learned to forgive and ultimately love his enemies.
- DirectorStephen FrearsStarsJudi DenchSteve CooganSophie Kennedy ClarkA world-weary political journalist picks up the story of a woman's search for her son, who was taken away from her decades ago after she became pregnant and was forced to live in a convent.
- DirectorIan PalmerStarsJames Quinn McDonaghPaddy Quinn McDonaghMichael Quinn McDonaghAn epic 12-year journey into the brutal and secretive world of Irish Traveler bare-knuckle fighting. This film follows a history of violent feuding between rival clans.
- DirectorConor HorganStarsDeclan BuckleyPhillip McMahonUna MullallyDocumentary about the life of Irish drag queen Panti Bliss.
- DirectorSyd MacartneyStarsPeter CaffreyBrendan ConroyOrla BradyThe true story of a Catholic man and his Protestant wife, and the events resulting in the Co. Wexford, Ireland community when the wife decides she doesn't appreciate being forced to send their daughter to a Catholic school, despite the local priest's insistence she is bound by the pre-marriage agreement she signed to raise any children as Catholic.
- DirectorLisa Barros D'SaGlenn LeyburnStarsCathal MaguirePeter KellyCharlie BerkeleyA chronicle of Terri Hooley's life, a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast's punk-rock scene.
- DirectorSteve McQueenStarsMichael FassbenderLiam CunninghamStuart GrahamIrish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
- DirectorStephen BradleyStarsDeirdre O'KaneSarah GreeneGloria Cramer CurtisChristina Noble overcomes the harsh difficulties of her childhood in Ireland to discover her destiny on the streets of Saigon. A true story.
- DirectorBrian GilbertStarsMary KennyHeather IandoloJames ClarkeOn a bitterly cold morning in January 1946, an Irishman whose voice was as well known as Churchill's, was hanged in England's grim Wandsworth gaol. It was always inconceivable that William Joyce, known to millions as 'Lord Haw-Haw', would escape the death penalty. However, just as with Roger Casement a generation earlier, it took considerable legal ingenuity on the part of the British establishment to ensure that Joyce was hanged. Lord Haw-Haw was the classic traitor. Broadcasting to millions from Nazi Germany, he played a part in sapping the collective spirit of wartime Britain. A grotesque figure, laughed at but secretly feared, his psychological defiance was mythologised by prolonged wartime anxiety. Hitler's Irishman: The Story of Lord Haw-Haw is a documentary by noted British feature film director, Brian Gilbert, for whom the story of William Joyce has been a lifelong obsession. In all Gilbert's work (e.g. 'Wilde', 'Tom and Viv', 'Not Without My Daughter'), he has sought to peel away the layers of complex characters and reveal the dark heart of fanaticism, self-invention and attachment to ideals at all cost. Hitler's Irishman: The story of Lord Haw-Haw is a creative documentary portrait of the compulsive and complex Irishman who recreated himself in a romantic and imagined ideal of Englishness, which he took to a monstrous and fanatical degree that would ultimately lead to his own undoing. Fascist thug? Irish intellectual? British traitor? German hero? Who, in fact, was the real William Joyce?
- DirectorJohn FordStarsTyrone PowerMaureen O'HaraRobert FrancisIn 1898, Irish immigrant Martin Maher is hired as a civilian employee at West Point where, during a 50-year career, he rises to the rank of NCO and instructor.
- DirectorVivienne De CourcyStarsEmma GreenwellTom HughesAlex MacqueenIrishwoman Mary Reynold's journey from rank outsider to winner of a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.
- DirectorNick HammStarsTimothy SpallColm MeaneyJohn HurtDuring the 2006 Northern Ireland peace talks, Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness (Colm Meaney) and Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley (Timothy Spall) are forced to travel by car together.
- StarsAidan GillenTom Vaughan-LawlorLucy CohuThe political and personal life of Irish politician Charles Haughey during his tenure as Taoiseach of Ireland (1979-1981, 1982, 1987-1992).
- DirectorMary McGuckianStarsOrla BradyVincent PerezFrancesco Scianna"The Price of Desire" tells the controversial story of how Le Corbusier effaced and defaced Eileen Gray's moral right to be recognized as the author of her work and as one of the most forceful and influential inspirations of a century of modern architecture and design.
- DirectorJohn MackenzieStarsJoan AllenPatrick BerginLiam CunninghamIrish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton invades the Irish underworld and attempts to expose the illegitimate activities that she has found. Hampered by the system, a police consort is ineffectual at aiding her despite trying to step outside of the normal bounds. Her husband, who hates her activities and the danger she places herself in, grudgingly admires her persistence and encourages her investigation.
- DirectorMary McGuckianStarsJohn LynchIan BannenJerome FlynnPulling no punches in its depiction of soccer legend George Best's slow descent from the heights of his Manchester United career, the man once dubbed the fifth Beatle for his glamorous lifestyle and good looks.
- DirectorHugh FarleyStarsStephen D'ArcyAonghus Og McAnallyCaitríona Ní MhurchúThe powerful true story of Irish Steeplechase runner Sonnie Murphy and his battle against the odds to compete in the 1932 Olympics.