Irish culture and particularly Irish actors (many of whom live abroad) are being celebrated everywhere at the moment. The terms “green wave” and “Irish wave” abound. This is great.
There is a renewed sense of confidence, and the healthy pride and joy it brings is like nothing else. I felt I was watching it on the sidelines and cheering on, and it now feels really lovely to be part of it somehow.
I can’t tell you my delight when Irish Film TV UK’s festival director Michael Hayden contacted me regarding my film Silent Grace – about it being part of 2024 IFTUK programme which was celebrating three Irish female cinematic voices. An Irish creative women triumvirate! The film, starring Orla Brady and Cathleen Bradley, is about Republican women on the Dirty Protest and first hunger strike. IFTUK saw Silent Grace as a “landmark” film, and, a few years ago, The Irish Times included it on their list of the “50 best Irish films ever made”.
The London screening is on Thursday, March 21st, following the festivities of St Patrick’s weekend. To be part of this sounded both brilliant and truly an honour. The other two Irish women are Flora Kerrigan, whose work has been rediscovered by the IFI and Maynooth University, and Aoife Desmond, a vital new film artist. Hayden also viewed the offline edit of my new short film, St Pancras Sunrise, with Emma Eliza Regan, and he said he would be happy to screen that as well.
This green wave came about, in part, due to huge amount of Oscar nominations in 2024 and the posse of incredible Irish male actors – and of course Cillian Murphy – working brilliantly again this year. And Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures of course.
I asked Hayden what he thought about this. “There is ample evidence that female voices are central to that wave,” he said. “There are plenty of notable Irish films made by women recently. People like Kate Dolan (You are not my Mother), Carmel Winters (Float Like a Butterfly), Neasa Hardiman (Sea Fever), Claire Dix (Sunlight), Lisa Mulcahy (Lies We Tell) and Patricia Kelly (Verdigris) are changing perceptions of what Irish fiction films can be, while the likes of Emer Reynolds (The Farthest) and Kathryn Ferguson (Nothing Compares) are doing the same for nonfiction film. So while these films in the IFTUK ICA programme aren’t made in these times, my feeling is that they chime with the times.”
I also reminded myself that, in fact, my St Pancras Sunrise short was made in these times. Just before Christmas time in fact.
Hayden went on to say he felt it was mainly the Irish female cinematic voice that connected the three works and though “they appear as works from artists unwilling to compromise, these filmmakers never lose sight of humane empathy or a sense of humour”. This level of focus can be impactful I feel for women creatives. And lovely for those of us away, you feel included.
I also have a tiny bit of déjà vu about all of this.
In the early 1990s I was in a production of Seán O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars in the Young Vic. Then a young theatre actress, I was playing a small part. Sam Mendes was directing and Judi Dench was starring with Niamh Cusack. It was wonderful. It felt part of an intensely transformational moment in London when all things around Irish culture in London had become both popular and potent. Fairytale of New York by Shane MacGowan and The Pogues was a hit. The Guildford Four had been released and Jim Sheridan was making a film about it. And Sinéad O’Connor’s voice was astonishing us all.
These guys were like superstars and after Irishmen being the punchline in Paddy the Irishman jokes for years, it felt apt somehow.
But now with peace on these isles, this wave is less edgy and much more global in impact. It has spread its wings internationally and thus gives pride to all the Irish abroad also. It really feels like a new level that Irish culture is entering worldwide. Lots of Irish women actors are doing brilliantly too. In TV and cinema Ireland has had the immense international talent of Saoirse Ronan and Jessie Buckley now for some time. And I am sure there are names I have forgotten.
Wouldn’t it also be wonderful in a few years to have a predominantly Irish women Oscar green wave – a Brenda as well as a Barry? A Ciara with Cillian? A Pauline with Paul? Maybe a Moya as well as a Martin.
It is a very exciting time for Irish culture globally at home and abroad and, on a personal level, in a smaller way it is exciting and wonderful to be celebrated with other Irish women film artists. I believe once women are seen as having the same value and see themselves as having the same value, they become unstoppable.
- Maeve Murphy is a film-maker and author from Belfast. She went to Cambridge University in the mid-1980s to study English. She is the writer-director of three feature films, including Silent Grace, Taking Stock on Netflix, and Sushi. She lives in London with her husband Richard.
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