March marks the time to celebrate Irish American Heritage Month.

Here are some of the top Irish acting exports in Hollywood, along with American Public Television programming centered on Irish culture and history.

 

Richard Harris

Birthplace: Limerick, Ireland

The late Irish actor was raised on a farm as one of nine children and later attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. His credits include: The Guns of Navarone (1961), Camelot (1967), Unforgiven (1992), Gladiator (2000) and the first two Harry Potter films, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) as Hogwarts Professor, Albus Dumbledore.

 

Pierce Brosnan

Birthplace: Drogheda, County Louth

Pierce Brosnan moved to the U.K. at an early age but has convincingly played both Irish and English characters in his long career. His first break was in the title role of the TV detective series, Remington Steele, from 1982 to 1987. But he’s best-known as the only Irish actor to play James Bond, starring in four 007 films: Goldeneye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002).

 

Liam Neeson

Birthplace: Ballymena, Northern Ireland

Liam Neeson was pursuing a teaching degree when he joined the Belfast Lyric Player’s Theatre in 1976. He earned his first of three Golden Globe nominations for Steven Spielberg, Schindler’s List (1983), and followed with nominations for Michael Collins (1996) and Kinsey (2004). Other credits include Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace (1999), Love Actually (2003) and the three-film action franchise Taken (2008, 2012, 2014).

 

Colin Farrell

Birthplace: Castleknock, Dublin.

Farrell dropped out of the Gaiety School of Acting and got his break when cast in the popular Irish TV series, Ballykissangel. His credits include Minority Report (2002), In Bruges (2008), The Lobster (2015) and The Batman (2020). He won the 2023 Best Actor – Comedy/Musical Globe in the Golden Globe-winning Best Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical, The Banshees of Inisherin. Those wins also highlighted the success of Irish playwright Martin McDonough, who wrote and directed that film as well as the award-winning drama, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

 

Kerry Condon

Birthplace: County Tipperary, Ireland

Kerry Condon’s TV credits include the HBO series Rome (2005-07), Better Call Saul (2015-22) and Ray Donovan (2019-20). As well as being the voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. in numerous films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, her other film credits include Ned Kelly (2003), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and Dreamland (2019). She was also nominated for a 2023 Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe playing Colin Farrell’s sister in The Banshees of Inisherin.

 

Saoirse Ronan

Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City

Saoirse Ronan may have been born in The Bronx, but when she was three, her Irish parents moved back to Dublin, where she grew up. She has received four Golden Globe nominations for her film roles in: Atonement (2017), Brooklyn (2015), Little Women (2019) and Ladybird (2017), for which she won the Globe. Other roles include Peter Jackson’s drama, The Lovely Bones (2009) and Hanna (2011), with Cate Blanchett.

 

 

Kenneth Branagh

Birthplace: Belfast, Northern Ireland

For many years, audiences assumed Kenneth Branagh was English as the knighted thespian first became famous as a Shakespearean actor in Henry V (1989) and Hamlet (1996). In fact, his Irish family had moved him and his two siblings to Berkshire, England, when he was nine, to escape the Northern Ireland conflict. In 2021, he wrote, produced and directed the Golden Globe-nominated drama, Belfast, based on that upbringing. Other credits include the TV series Wallander (2008-15), two Agatha Christie thrillers he starred in and directed – Murder on the Orient Express (2017) and Death on the Nile (2022) – and the two Marvel movies he directed, Iron Man 2 (2010) and Thor (2011).

 

 

Caitriona Balfe

Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland

Caitriona Balfe grew up in County Monaghan before travelling the world as a model at the age of 19. Her acting career took off when she was cast in the time-travelling TV drama, Outlander, now in its 8^th season. She earned four Best TV Drama Actress Golden Globe nominations in the role of Claire Randall and a Best Motion Picture Drama Actress nomination in Belfast (2021). Other film credits include Money Monster (2016), Ford v Ferrari (2019) and Belfast (2021)

 

 

Brendan and Domhnall Gleeson

Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland

Father-and-son actors, Brendan and Domhnall Gleeson, were both nominated in 2022 for a Golden Globe award. Brendan – whose credits include In Bruges (2008), The Guard (2011) and Calvary (2014) – was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). His son, Domhnall – whose film credits include About Time (2013), Ex Machina (2015) and The Revenant (2015) – was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the Limited Series, The Patient (2022).

 

 

Celebrating Irish Heritage on American Public Television

Check local PBS listings for broadcast dates/times. Available from March 1 to stream with Passport on pbs.org 

Celtic Awakening with Faith Marion Robinson

Robinson and her band of Irish musicians present genre-spanning musical selections that represent themes from the Emerald Isle connected to Irish emigration, the Great Famine, and more.

Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance: The Impossible Tour

The legendary dance show returns with a new generation, led onstage by Michael Flatley’s handpicked successor, Matt Smith, who is one of only four people in the world capable of performing Michael’s legendary “Feet of Flames: solo.

 

The Story of the D-Day Forecast: Three Days in June

For a few tense days in June 1944, the success of the D-Day military invasion was completely reliant on weather readings taken by a young Irish woman at a remote weather station on Ireland’s West Coast. The documentary includes a special interview with that woman, Maureen Sweeney about that unique moment in history.