Best Irish Movies
by sidhenagh | created - 26 Aug 2014 | updated - 3 months ago | PublicMy definition of Irish movies for this list: Movies about people from Ireland. This can either be set in Ireland or elsewhere, and made by Irish people or others.
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1. In America (2002)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama
A family of Irish immigrants adjust to life on the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen while also grieving the death of a child.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Paddy Considine, Samantha Morton, Djimon Hounsou, Sarah Bolger
Votes: 44,274 | Gross: $15.54M
2. The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)
Not Rated | 127 min | Drama, War
Against the backdrop of the Irish War of Independence, two brothers fight a guerrilla war against British forces.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham, Orla Fitzgerald
Votes: 54,601 | Gross: $1.83M
3. The Quiet Man (1952)
Passed | 129 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A retired American boxer returns to the village of his birth in 1920s Ireland, where he falls for a spirited redhead whose brother is contemptuous of their union.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Barry Fitzgerald, Ward Bond
Votes: 42,389 | Gross: $10.55M
4. Michael Collins (1996)
R | 133 min | Biography, Drama, Thriller
Neil 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.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Julia Roberts, Ian Hart
Votes: 33,745 | Gross: $11.09M
5. Hunger (2008)
Not Rated | 96 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Irish republican Bobby Sands leads the inmates of a Northern Irish prison in a hunger strike.
Director: Steve McQueen | Stars: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Laine Megaw
Votes: 73,540 | Gross: $0.15M
6. The Secret of Kells (2009)
Not Rated | 75 min | Animation, Adventure, Family
A young boy in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids is beckoned to adventure when a celebrated master illuminator arrives with an ancient book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers.
Directors: Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey | Stars: Evan McGuire, Brendan Gleeson, Mick Lally, Christen Mooney
Votes: 38,278 | Gross: $0.69M
7. Calvary (2014)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
After he is threatened during a confession, a good-natured priest must battle the dark forces closing in around him.
Director: John Michael McDonagh | Stars: Brendan Gleeson, Chris O'Dowd, Kelly Reilly, Aidan Gillen
Votes: 64,325 | Gross: $3.59M
8. My Name Is Emily (2015)
94 min | Drama
On her 16th birthday, Emily runs away from her foster home and, with the help of her new friend Arden, sets out on a road trip to break her father out of a psychiatric institution.
Director: Simon Fitzmaurice | Stars: Evanna Lynch, George Webster, Michael Smiley, Deirdre Mullins
Votes: 1,220
9. Song of the Sea (2014)
PG | 93 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
Ben, a young Irish boy, and his little sister Saoirse, a girl who can turn into a seal, go on an adventure to free the fairies and save the spirit world.
Director: Tomm Moore | Stars: David Rawle, Brendan Gleeson, Lisa Hannigan, Fionnula Flanagan
Votes: 63,096 | Gross: $0.86M
10. Once (I) (2007)
R | 86 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A modern-day musical about a busker and an immigrant and their eventful week in Dublin, as they write, rehearse and record songs that tell their love story.
Director: John Carney | Stars: Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová, Hugh Walsh, Gerard Hendrick
Votes: 121,264 | Gross: $9.44M
11. The Crying Game (1992)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A British soldier kidnapped by the IRA soon befriends one of his captors, who then becomes drawn into the soldier's world.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Stephen Rea, Jaye Davidson, Forest Whitaker, Miranda Richardson
Votes: 60,050 | Gross: $62.55M
12. My Left Foot (1989)
R | 103 min | Biography, Drama
Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan, Kirsten Sheridan
Votes: 79,766 | Gross: $14.74M
13. The Commitments (1991)
R | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Jimmy Rabbitte, an unemployed Dublin boy, decides to put together a soul band made up entirely of the Irish working class.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball, Maria Doyle Kennedy
Votes: 38,777 | Gross: $14.92M
14. The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
R | 114 min | Drama
Three young Irish women struggle to maintain their spirits while they endure dehumanizing abuse as inmates of a Magdalene Sisters Asylum.
Director: Peter Mullan | Stars: Eileen Walsh, Dorothy Duffy, Nora-Jane Noone, Anne-Marie Duff
Votes: 28,459 | Gross: $4.89M
15. Barry Lyndon (1975)
PG | 185 min | Adventure, Drama, War
An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England.
Director: Stanley Kubrick | Stars: Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger
Votes: 183,013
16. In the Name of the Father (1993)
R | 133 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
An 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.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Alison Crosbie, Philip King
Votes: 187,063 | Gross: $25.01M
17. Brooklyn (2015)
PG-13 | 117 min | Drama, Romance
An Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.
Director: John Crowley | Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Emory Cohen, Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent
Votes: 150,452 | Gross: $38.32M
18. Sing Street (2016)
PG-13 | 106 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A young lad notices a beautiful girl who begins to occupy his thoughts. While struggling with poverty, personal relationships and life's woes, he starts a band, hoping to catch her attention.
Director: John Carney | Stars: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Jack Reynor
Votes: 100,901 | Gross: $3.24M
19. Good Vibrations (2012)
Not Rated | 103 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of Terri Hooley's life, a record-store owner instrumental in developing Belfast's punk-rock scene.
Directors: Lisa Barros D'Sa, Glenn Leyburn | Stars: Cathal Maguire, Peter Kelly, Charlie Berkeley, Jack Carberry
Votes: 5,593
20. Philomena (2013)
PG-13 | 98 min | Biography, Comedy, Drama
A 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.
Director: Stephen Frears | Stars: Judi Dench, Steve Coogan, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Mare Winningham
Votes: 103,782 | Gross: $37.71M
21. The Siege of Jadotville (2016)
TV-MA | 108 min | Action, Drama, History
Irish Commandant Pat Quinlan leads a stand off with troops against French and Belgian Mercenaries in the Congo during the early 1960s.
Director: Richie Smyth | Stars: Jamie Dornan, Emmanuelle Seigner, Mark Strong, Mikael Persbrandt
Votes: 44,336
22. The Field (1990)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Thriller
When a field (which has been farmed by the McCabe family for generations) goes up for auction, the patriarch of the McCabe family will stop at nothing to prevent a rich American from buying it.
Director: Jim Sheridan | Stars: Richard Harris, John Hurt, Sean Bean, Frances Tomelty
Votes: 6,765 | Gross: $1.41M
23. Black '47 (2018)
R | 100 min | Action, Drama, History
Set in Ireland during the Great Famine, the drama follows an Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, as he abandons his post to reunite with his family.
Director: Lance Daly | Stars: Hugo Weaving, James Frecheville, Stephen Rea, Freddie Fox
Votes: 13,183 | Gross: $0.05M
24. The Nightingale (I) (2018)
R | 136 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
Set in 1825, Clare, a young Irish convict woman, chases a British officer through the rugged Tasmanian wilderness, bent on revenge for a terrible act of violence he committed against her family. On the way she enlists the services of an Aboriginal tracker named Billy, who is also marked by trauma from his own violence-filled past.
Director: Jennifer Kent | Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr, Addison Christie
Votes: 35,621 | Gross: $0.39M
25. Wolfwalkers (2020)
PG | 103 min | Animation, Action, Adventure
A young apprentice hunter and her father journey to Ireland to help wipe out the last wolf pack. But everything changes when she befriends a free-spirited girl from a mysterious tribe rumored to transform into wolves by night.
Directors: Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart | Stars: Honor Kneafsey, Eva Whittaker, Sean Bean, Simon McBurney
Votes: 38,638
26. '71 (2014)
R | 99 min | Action, Crime, Drama
In 1971, a young and disoriented British soldier is accidentally abandoned by his unit following a riot on the deadly streets of Belfast.
Director: Yann Demange | Stars: Jack O'Connell, Sam Reid, Sean Harris, Paul Popplewell
Votes: 60,140 | Gross: $1.27M
27. Death of a Ladies' Man (2020)
100 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A carousing college professor's life takes a series of unimaginable turns, and all the old stories are given a new twist, when he begins to have surreal hallucinations and learns he may not be long for this world.
Director: Matt Bissonnette | Stars: Gabriel Byrne, Jessica Paré, Brian Gleeson, Antoine Olivier Pilon
Votes: 575
28. Bainne (2019)
18 min | Short, Horror
During the last year of The Great Famine in Ireland, a farmhand working for the local landlord has hardened his heart against his countrymen to ensure his own survival. But when he ... See full summary »
Director: Jack Reynor | Stars: Will Poulter, Kelly Thornton, Toni O'Rourke, Steve Wall
Votes: 51
29. Belfast (2021)
PG-13 | 98 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan
Votes: 92,316
30. Jimmy's Hall (2014)
PG-13 | 109 min | Biography, Drama, History
During 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.
Director: Ken Loach | Stars: Barry Ward, Francis Magee, Aileen Henry, Simone Kirby
Votes: 6,951 | Gross: $0.56M
31. The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
R | 114 min | Comedy, Drama
Two lifelong friends find themselves at an impasse when one abruptly ends their relationship, with alarming consequences for both of them.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Pat Shortt
Votes: 252,846
32. In Bruges (2008)
R | 107 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
After a job gone wrong, hitman Ray and his partner await orders from their ruthless boss in Bruges, Belgium, the last place in the world Ray wants to be.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington
Votes: 461,408 | Gross: $7.76M
33. The Wonder (I) (2022)
R | 108 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A tale of two strangers who transform each other's lives, a psychological thriller, and a story of love pitted against evil.
Director: Sebastián Lelio | Stars: Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Niamh Algar
Votes: 44,210
34. The Quiet Girl (2022)
PG-13 | 95 min | Drama
In rural Ireland, a quiet, neglected girl is sent away from her dysfunctional family to live with relatives for the summer where she blossoms and learns what it is to be loved.
Director: Colm Bairéad | Stars: Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Catherine Clinch, Michael Patric
Votes: 22,109
35. Breakfast on Pluto (2005)
R | 128 min | Comedy, Drama
In the 1970s, a young trans woman, Patrick "Kitten" Braden, comes of age by leaving her Irish town for London, in part to look for her mother and in part because her gender identity is beyond the town's understanding.
Director: Neil Jordan | Stars: Cillian Murphy, Morgan Jones, Eva Birthistle, Liam Neeson
Votes: 24,520 | Gross: $0.83M
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