Irish Film Awards 2007: IRA, Transgender Dramas

The Wind That Shakes the Barley with Padraic Delaney and Cillian Murphy.

Irish Film Awards 2007: IRA drama The Wind That Shakes the Barley, transgender drama Breakfast on Pluto among favorites

Strangely, although it failed to get nominated in the Best Director (Ken Loach) and Best Screenplay (Paul Haverty) categories, 2006 Cannes winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley was chosen as the Best Irish Film at the 2007 Irish Film & Television Academy Awards ceremony held on Feb. 9 in Dublin.

Starring Cillian Murphy and Padraic Delaney, The Wind That Shakes the Barley follows members of the Irish Republican Army as they fight the British in the early 20th century. Liam Cunningham, as a train driver who becomes an activist, was selected as the year’s Best Supporting Actor. Other The Wind That Shakes the Barley cast members include Orla Fitzgerald, Mary O’Riordan, Mary Murphy, Laurence Barry, Damien Kearney, and Frank Bourke.

Best Actor Cillian Murphy

Cillian Murphy, for his part, was the winner of the Best Actor Irish Film Award – but not for The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Instead, Murphy was honored for his performance as a transvestite cabaret singer in Neil Jordan’s sociopolitical comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto. Additionally, Breakfast on Pluto received three other Irish Film Awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay (Jordan and Pat McCabe), and Best Hair and Make-Up.

Eva Birthistle, Little Miss Sunshine

Eva Birthistle was voted Best Actress for playing the proprietress of a small-town pub – and the object of fanatical priest Matthew Macfadyen’s hatred – in Brian Kirk’s dark drama Middletown.

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine, everybody’s favorite faux irreverent comedy, was the Best International Film. Little Miss Sunshine’s ensemble features Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, and Abigail Breslin.FILM

Best Film
Breakfast on Pluto
The Front Line
Middletown
Small Engine Repair
* The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Best International Film
Babel
Casino Royale
The Departed
* Little Miss Sunshine
United 93

Best Director
John Boorman – The Tiger’s Tail
David Gleeson – The Front Line
* Neil Jordan – Breakfast on Pluto
Brian Kirk – Middletown

Best Actor
Pierce Brosnan – The Matador
Colin Farrell – Miami Vice
Brendan Gleeson – Studs
* Cillian Murphy – Breakfast on Pluto
Cillian Murphy – The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Best Actress
* Eva Birthistle – Middletown
Gemma Doorly – A Song for Rebecca
Pauline McLynn – Gypo
Ruth Negga – Isolation

Best Supporting Actor
* Liam Cunningham – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Padraic Delaney – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Gerard McSorley – Middletown
Stephen Rea – Breakfast on Pluto

Best Supporting Actress
Sinead Cusack – The Tiger’s Tail
Orla Fitzgerald – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
* Fionnula Flanagan – Transamerica
Ruth Negga – Breakfast on Pluto

Best Screenplay
* Breakfast on Pluto – Neil Jordan & Pat McCabe
The Front Line – David Gleeson
Middletown – Daragh Carville
Small Engine Repair – Niall Heery

Best Cinematography
Breakfast on Pluto – Declan Quinn
Isolation – Robbie Ryan
* The Tiger’s Tail – Seamus Deasy
World Trade Center – Seamus McGarvey

Best Music
The Front Line – Patrick Cassidy
Once – Glen Hansard
Small Engine Repair – Niall Byrne
* The Tiger’s Tail – Stephen McKeon

Best Production Design
Breakfast on Pluto – Tom Conroy
* Get Rich or Die Tryin’ – Mark Geraghty
Middletown – Ashleigh Jeffers
Small Engine Repair – Mark Lowry

Best Costume Design
Breakfast on Pluto – Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh
The Prestige – Joan Bergin
* The Queen – Consolata Boyle
The Tiger’s Tail – Maeve Patterson

Best Hair & Makeup
* Breakfast on Pluto – Lorraine Glynn & Lynn Johnson
Middletown – Morna Ferguson & Lorraine Glynn
The Tiger’s Tail – Martina McCarthy & Denise Watson

FILM & TELEVISION

The BSE/IFB & NIFTC Breakthrough Talent Award
Padraic Delaney, Actor – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Orla Fitzgerald, Actress – The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Domhnall Gleeson, Actor – Studs
* Niall Heery, Writer/Director – Small Engine Repair
Brian Kirk, Director – Middletown
Lucy Kennedy, TV Presenter – The Podge and Rodge Show

Best Film Editing
Dermot Diskin – Showbands
Cúán MacConghail – Studs
* Stephen O’Connell – Stardust
Ray Roantree – Fallout

Best Sound
* Lassie – Peter Blayney, Patrick Drummond, John Fitzgerald & Mervyn Moore
Middletown – Michelle Cunniffe, John Fitzgerald, Nikki Moss & Simon Willis
Stardust – John Fitzgerald, Peter Blayney, Jon Stevenson & Dan Birch
The Tiger’s Tail – Brendan Deasy

Best Short Film
Bongo Bong
The Faeries of Blackheath Woods
* Joyriders
The White Dress

Best Animated Short
Badly Drawn Roy
* Horn Ok Please
Pilgrim

TELEVISION (Partial list)

Best Single Drama or Drama Serial
Fallout
Hide & Seek
Legend
* Stardust

Best Actor
Ciarán Hinds – Rome

Best Actress
Ger Ryan – Stardust

Best Supporting Actor
Gary Lydon – The Clinic

Best Supporting Actress
Ruth Bradley – Stardust

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS

Best Irish Film
The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Best International Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Departed

Best International Actress
Helen Mirren – The Queen

Irish Academy Awards 2007: Transgender cabaret singer tops nominations

Previous Irish Film Awards nominations article: Awards season in Ireland: Neil Jordan’s early 2006 release Breakfast on Pluto (which actually debuted in New York City and Los Angeles in late 2005) sits atop the list of nominees for this year’s Irish Film & Television Academy Awards.

The tale of an Irish transgender cabaret singer in 1970s London, Breakfast on Pluto received a total of 10 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), and Best Screenplay (Jordan and Pat McCabe).

Other top Irish Academy Award nominees were:

• With 9 nods, Brian Kirk’s Middletown, about a borderline-fanatical Catholic priest who believes it’s his mission to save the souls of the inhabitants of a small Irish town.
• With 7 nods, The Tiger’s Tail, about a businessman (Best Actor nominee Brendan Gleeson) stalked by his down-and-out twin. Veteran John Boorman (Point Blank, Excalibur) directed.
• With 7 nods, Ken Loach’s Cannes Film Festival winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, about Irish Republican guerrilla fighters in the early 20th century.

All of the aforementioned titles – plus The Front Line, directed by David Gleeson – received Best Film nominations, though the English-born Loach failed to be included in the 4-name Best Director category.

Breakfast on Pluto with Cillian Murphy. Based on Patrick McCabe’s novel, Neil Jordan’s comedy-drama Breakfast on Pluto traces the life of a transgender woman, from her days as a biologically male foundling in a small Irish town to her unwitting involvement with members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and her difficult life in the British capital in the 1970s. With ten nominations, Breakfast on Pluto is the top contender for the 2007 Irish Academy Awards, while Cillian Murphy is competing against himself in the Best Actor category: as the transgender Patricia in Breakfast on Pluto and as an early 1920s IRA fighter in Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Cillian Murphy x2

Rising star Cillian Murphy received two Best Actor nods. In addition to his Breakfast on Pluto performance, he was also shortlisted for The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Another double nominee was Ruth Negga, in contention as Best Actress for Billy O’Brien’s horror drama Isolation and as Best Supporting Actress for Breakfast on Pluto.

Apart from the multi-language Babel, the choices for Best International Film were all English-language productions: the Irish-mob-themed The Departed, United 93, Little Miss Sunshine, and Casino Royale.

“Irish Film Awards 2007: IRA, Transgender Dramas” notes

Irish Film & Television Academy website.

Padraic Delaney and Cillian Murphy The Wind That Shakes the Barley image: Pathé Distribution.

Cillian Murphy Breakfast on Pluto image: Sony Pictures Classics.

*last modified in March 2026.