Pat Shortt, D’Unbelievable Briton

Is there a more conspicuously Irish actor than Pat Shortt? Nobody is, you'll agree, likely to mistake D'Unbelievableactor for an Englishman or a Scot. Yet last Sunday, Pat became the latest Irish person to gatecrash the Evening StandardBritish Film Awards when he won the best actor gong (jointly with Frost/Nixon's Michael Sheen) for his performance in Garage.

Martin McDonagh, whose script for In Bruges, secured the best screenplay award, was, of course, born and raised in London. And Steve McQueen's Hunger, which upset the odds by beating Slumdog Millionaireto best picture, was directed by an Englishman and partly financed by British taxpayers. But Lenny Abrahamson's fine Garageis as Irish as leprechaun pie. I suppose "British and Irish Film Awards" is a bit of a mouthful. But still.