Cultural renaissance in Ireland

Something positive is wafting in the air.  Definitely.

It's beginning to feel a lot like the renaissance of the arts  - right here, right now, across Ireland, north and south.  In stark contrast to an array of destructive events internationally, it may well be that we are witnessing the re-emergence of highly-rated art and culture.

In a way it's not entirely new.  For generations Europe's western outpost has been renowned for producing giants of literature both in prose and in verse, its folk music and musicians remain big box office everywhere, and its 9,000 years of archaeological legacy and of written culture dating back to the Book of Kells inspire far and wide, at home and abroad. 

Over the last two or more centuries, Ireland has been notable for its writers, providing many poets and authors both male and female; and for musicians exhibiting similar displays of talent that encompasses traditional folk and other contemporary forms of composition. 

People who live here are proud of our established legacy and heritage in the fields of literature, music, dance, and art; and are keenly aware of what now feels like a cultural renaissance expanding into relatively new areas.  So, not only is the modern era extending the production line of award-winning authors, actors, music-makers and others; but recent additions to the "others" category are emerging equipped with related artistic skill-sets.  

Specific examples come from film-making as well as from architecture and urban planning - unlikely and debatable as that assertion may at first appear.

 

Context

What adds irony to current trends in Ireland are the contrasts provided by pre-occupations of bigger powers abroad.  Our neighbours to the west and east seem to be focussed on confronting other issues.  Declarations from America about climate change being a "hoax," the imperative to defend its citizens by, for instance, bombing boats in the Caribbean suspected of carrying illegal drugs, and reversal of Presidential stance about releasing files of a convicted sex offender (1) all grab headlines.  

At the same time, Great Britain engages in fierce debates about an assortment of problematic issues.  These include the state of its 77 year old health service, immigration and small boats, prison security, the commitment to double expenditure on military defence, raising taxes, and crucially, the state of the Monarchy (2).  Is the adjective in the national title under threat?

The question is - what is Ireland doing to make the world a better place?  Activities that bring people closer together perhaps? 

Examples of a renaissance in the arts and culture here appear from newsworthy projects this autumn and early winter.  They include the following:-

Architecture & Urban Planning - 3 examples

• The practice of O'Donnell + Tuomey have won this year's top prize, the Royal Institute of British Architects Gold Medal.  Of particular note is the practice's winning of the international competition to design the prestigious East Bank Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London.  The success prompted thoughts about what great things they do on home turf (3);
• the O'Donnell Tuomey success revived memories of another Irish architectural practice, Grafton Architects, headed by Shelley McNamara & Yvonne Farrell.  Only five years ago they won architecture's premier global accolade, the Pritzker Prize, a first for Ireland;
• the practice of Heneghan Peng won the largest architectural competition in history in 2003.  The prize was to design the world's biggest museum for a single civilisation.  In response to an Egyptian Government call to create a home for its unique archaeological treasures, more than 1500 firms from 83 countries had applied.  On November 4 this year, after numerous set-backs, and at a cost of $1billion, the entire Grand Egyptian Museum complex at Giza designed by these Irish architects was officially opened (4) at last.  It was also on a  November 4  - in 1922 - when the archaeological team led by Britain's Howard Carter found the steps that led to Tutankhamun's tomb. The new museum accommodates the entire Tutankhamun collection.  Another attraction (if that is not also a complete understatement) is the Khufu ship, an intact solar barque originally sealed into the Great Pyramid more than 4000 years ago.  The architects' design has cleverly aligned the museum with the three big Pyramids and used the elevation of the Giza plateau to give a sense of ascending towards Egypt's past majesty (5).  Taking heed of the previous question about what could this practice do on home turf, the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Giants Causeway's Visitor Centre in County Antrim is one answer to note. 

• 

Film-making - 4 examples

• In late September the "House of Guinness" Irish-British historical drama series about the Dublin brewery family was premiered by Netflix.  Filmed in various locations in England and Ireland, it has been described as an Irish Peaky Blinders (a reference to its British screen-writer Steven Knight).  Devised by Guinness family descendant Ivana Lowell who told the BBC (6) that "our family history was a lot juicier and more interesting than Downton Abbey plus it was all true," it comprises of eight episodes.  As a substantive and compelling work it provides a showcase for its mostly - but not exclusively - Irish acting talent.  There is also the addition of sonorous background music from the Fontaines DC, Lankum and Kneecap.  The Guardian's critic (7) summarised the drama as "a ratings hit and (has) garnered rave reviews."

• Three other locally-produced television dramas have also been broadcast nationwide recently, notable for their variety of theme and content.  One such is the BBC Northern Ireland's hard-hitting crime drama "Blue Lights."  Set and filmed in and around Belfast, the series follows the careers, challenges and family lives of Police Service officers, warts and all.  The cast are from all parts of Northern Ireland - and beyond.  After series two was aired, it won a BAFTA award for the U.K's best drama series earlier this year.  Tellingly, work has already begun on a fourth series. 
  

• "Leonard and Hungry Paul" is another BBC Northern Ireland drama series, this one being co-produced with RTÉ.  It has strong Irish cultural connections being based on the debut novel by Rónán Hession.  Its setting is Dublin.  In a way it is a polar opposite of Blue Lights, with a lateral approach and storyline at least a zillion miles away from crime; it has a beautiful emphasis on primary colours, and its production carries striking American vibes with Hollywood star Julia Roberts narrating throughout - in contrast to the polite Dublin accents of the actors.   The two male lead actors, incidentally, hail from England.  As an Irish Times critic wryly observed (8), "nothing happens on an ongoing basis...yet the effect is absolutely absorbing - it's like watching paint drying (as) if that was a gripping spectator sport..."  Just six delightful 25 minute episodes - relaxing escapism at its best.

• Channel 4 has broadcast an emotionally-charged love story set in the bad times of the Troubles in Belfast in the early 1970's. As with Leonard & Hungry Paul, "Trespasses" is also based on a bestseller Irish novel of the same name. The book was shortlisted for the 2023 Womens Prize for Fiction as written by Louise Kennedy.  With a cast line-up lauded by the Evening Standard's critic (9) featuring the American X-Files actor, in his words, "Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking," and Belfast actor "Lola Petticrew (who) steals the show,"  the story created uncomfortable reminders (for local viewers anyway) of horrible times (hopefully confined to the past).   All viewers, however, are eventually glued in to follow an unmissable drama unfold over five short episodes.  Epic story-telling.

 

More drama - 2 examples

Other examples of locally-produced film dramas - about to film new series - have also been creating glowing reviews.  Recently, for instance, Northern Ireland Screen reported that "the hit Irish language crime drama Crá from BBC Northern Ireland and TG4" will begin filming a second series of six episodes in Donegal in early 2026.  It announced the news at the Belfast Media Festival (10) adding that series one reached audiences in more than 60 countries.  This success reflects the growing cultural interest across the community and more widely in the Irish language.

And in another funding announcement, Northern Ireland Screen reported (11) that the ever-popular police drama, Joe Mercurio's award-winning "Line of Duty" will return for a seventh series.  Filming will start in Belfast next spring with actors Adrian Dunbar, Vicky McClure and Martin Compston taking another well-deserved bow, reprising their roles.

It looks like outward-looking Ireland, fabled as a land of Saints and Scholars, subsequently as an abode for Writers and Musicians, is now also making constructive modern space at home and abroad for artistic design,for  acting and film-making.  And why not - the arts and culture deserve priority, our means of self-expression.

© Michael McSorley 2025 

References:-

1. BBC News 20 Nov 2025 "Trump signs bill ordering US justice department to release Epstein files"

2. https://michaelmcsorleycurrent.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-grand-old-duke-of-york.html

3. "How to Revitalise a City" Gemma Tipton Irish Times Ticket Sat 4 Oct 2025 

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/2025/10/06/irish-architects-have-designed-a-new-london-neighbourhood-what-could-they-do-here/

4. "A Cultural Colossus in the Desert" Gemma Tipton Irish Times The Ticket 1 Nov 2025

5. Heneghan Peng Architects https://www.hparc.com/m/work/the-grand-egyptian-museum/

6. BBC Culture Clare McHugh 23 Sept 2025 The real-life family drama behind new Netflix show House of Guinness  https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20250922-the-real-family-drama-behind-house-of-guinness

7. The Guardian Rory Carroll 1 Oct 2025 "A steampunk Mr Tayto" https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/01/irish-critics-netflix-series-house-of-guinness-ireland

8. Irish Times Ed Power 20 Oct 2025 "Droll Dublin dramedy narrated by Julia Roberts is Normal People for nerds"  Leonard and Hungry Paul review: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio/2025/10/20/leonard-and-hungry-paul-review-droll-dublin-dramedy-narrated-by-julia-roberts-is-normal-people-for-nerds/

9. Belfast Telegraph 8 Nov 2025 Michael Hogan ©Evening Standard 

 https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/reviews/trespasses-review-anderson-is-at-her-most-heartbreaking-while-petticrew-steals-the-show/a1312949739.html

10. NI Media Festival 1 Nov 2025 https://northernirelandscreen.co.uk/news/irish-language-crime-drama-cra/

11. NI Media Festival 1 Nov 2025 https://northernirelandscreen.co.uk/news/line-of-duty-returns-for-series-seven/

TV Documentaries

If women ruled the world....?

Television documentaries have become an invaluable source of information about all sorts of topics.  Two excellent such programmes have been screened on our televisions recently.  Both focus on women. One relates to nurses, the other to nuns.

Apart from those that reveal shocking war scenes in Gaza and Ukraine, these two documentaries remind us of positive achievements and of the normal people who work to make the world a better place.  Like any modern art form, these programmes draw public attention to under-reported and often unheralded human actions and sometimes also to beautiful places.

Nurses

"Emerald Nightingales: Irish Nurses and the NHS" (1) recounts the story of "a vital pillar of the U.K's National Health Service."  The nurses helped shape its early development in the aftermath of World War 2 following establishment of the new health service in 1948.  

The documentary illustrates that the question of staffing shortages soon became apparent.  As a consequence, recruitment campaigns were begun all across Ireland in national and also local newspapers, resulting in ten of thousands of people from across the island joining the new institution to work.

Numerous impressive accounts of their constructive role emerge of working in hospital maternity units, A&E, and across the entire health service.  It shows them bringing nursing care, resilience and professionalism to a brand new and evolving system of healthcare in Britain.  The programme features interviews conducted by Dr Tom McGorrian of Buckinghamshire New University (BNU) with surviving nurses from that era.  BNU produced the documentary (2).   

The programme makers' use of old black and white film clips of nurses at work adds especially to the story's austere post-war atmosphere.  Surviving nurses regale viewers with tales of their youthful rural Irish lives being changed beyond recognition by moving from isolated rural familial communities to all parts of Great Britain often in unfamiliar metropolitan settings. 

They carefully recall their varied career paths over many years, and explain how they discovered their aptitude and love for nursing.  In the midst of the challenges of settling into new workplaces and of eventually managing to find time even for social life, tales of frustration emerge in some cases.  Not least was having to deal with jibes when the Troubles arrived in England in the 1970's.

All in all, the ten or so women nurses interviewed all came across as sincere, patient, conscientious, eloquent, caring, empathetic, and resilient - exactly what would be expected.  To this non-medical viewer, they provided an exemplary advertisement for the nursing profession as well as for their home country - and also, for womanhood.  Most of those featured had long dedicated careers, unwilling (unintentionally reflecting the life of nuns) to terminate vocationally rewarding duties. It would be difficult verging on impossible to find a flaw in their heart-warming accounts.

My interest in the documentary had been piqued by a couple of earlier books written by an ex-nurse and close friend about the role of nurses here in Northern Ireland.  One deals with how they managed during the challenging times of the Northern Ireland Troubles (3) from 1969 and onwards through three subsequent decades; while the more recent book focuses on their work during challenges presented by World War Two (4).  Nursing in bellicose circumstances will have been abnormal, not at all easy, but inspirationally described by the authors. 

Both books are written from the nurses' professional perspectives in their own words; and both have been published in association with the Royal College of Nurses.  Their testimonies, like those outlined in the BNU documantary, preserve their achievements of working in difficult circumstances as reminders in a series of well-articulated encounters exemplifying nurses' dedication and heroism.

Nuns

"The Hills are Alive a year at Kylemore Abbey" (5) highlights the fantastic work being done by Benedictine nuns in Connemara County Galway.  The story is presented as a three-part documentary.  After explaining the arrival of the order from Ypres in Belgium in 1920, the programme concentrates on the nuns' more recent efforts to improve their Irish base by uplifting the community and its natural surrounds.

My interest in watching the series had been aroused by the chance discovery of Kylemore Abbey about 20 years ago when driving round western Connaught as a tourist.  Suddenly I was awestruck at the sight of this magnificent building in its majestic setting - Kylemore Castle.  The nuns had converted Kylemore to an Abbey while also making provision for an all-girls school.  At that time there was no specific drive or attention paid to catering for tourism.

Kylemore Castle (6) had been built in the late 1800's by Mitchell Henry (1826-1910), the M.P at Westminster for Co Galway from 1871 to 1885.  Its grounds comprise of about 1,000 acres which include a 6-acre walled garden, stables for Connemara ponies, extensive woodland and lakeshore walks, a neo-Gothic Church near the Abbey and a Mausoleum where Mr Henry and his wife are buried side by side.  Nuns who have died have also been interred in the peaceful cemetry.

The documentary explains how the Benedictine order subsequently recognised the need to attend to the upkeep and improvement of their ageing building; and also to find ways to restore the extensive grounds and its forestry, given added impetus by the imperatives of climate change.  The turnaround in the area's prospects must be one of rural Ireland's most remarkable modern stories. 

Rather than making any claims about entrepreneurship, a term not once used in the documentary, the sisters have redeveloped the Abbey and its grounds as a community project.  The result is that Kylemore Abbey has become a popular destination for international visitors, with huge numbers now arriving in coach parties especially in summer months.  It's well worth a visit.

The Abbey also provides other incidental events ranging from lace-making demonstrations presented by nuns, to talks on different topics and occasional musical events. The documentary reveals the high quality of locally produced recipés and other food for both diners and shoppers in addition to many craft and miscellaneous items for sale.

The underlying purpose of the works is to facilitate the nuns' monastic life as well as their role in providing for visiting pilgrims.  Apart from the religious aspects, the nuns' outward-looking approach and initiatives have benefited the local community through the provision of job opportunities across a range of activities.  In the documentary, the nuns emphasise the community and their religious duties as their motivation.

"The Hills are Alive" programme is a life-affirming story demonstrating the almost literally unbelievable results that can emerge from recognising the potential of what we have.  Teamwork, dedication, attention to detail and respect for the environment - never mind a few prayers and novenas - all help.  

What a story - and like the nurses, such impressive women.  It begs the titular question above.

Perhaps it was ladies like these nurses and nuns that William Shakespeare had in mind when he said 

    "The meaning of life is to find your gift.  The purpose of life is to give it away." 

 

© Michael McSorley 2025 

References

1.  TV doc "Emerald Nightingales" produced by Buckinghamshire New University, Pinewood Studios.  RTÉ Player August 2025

2. Website www.bucks.ac.uk

3. Book "Nurses Voices from the Northern Ireland Troubles. Personal accounts from the front line." Margaret Graham & Prof Jean Orr RCN Middlesex 2013

4. Book "Nurses Voices from the Second World War - the Ireland Connection." Seán Graffin  & Margaret Graham RCN NI Oct 2023

5. TV doc https://www.rte.ie/player/series/the-hills-are-alive--a-year-at-kylemore-abbey/10011254-00-0000?epguid=IP10011262-01-0001

6. Website https://trust.kylemoreabbey.com/?_gl=1%2A133bduw%2A_gcl_au%2ANzc3NzEwMzU4LjE3NTY1NjQ3NTI.%2A_ga%2AODM0MDY2NjUuMTc1NjU2NDc1Mg..%2A_ga_C5NG9HCSXX%2AczE3NTY1NjQ3NzQkbzEkZzEkdDE3NTY1NjQ4OTUkajMxJGwwJGgw&_ga=2.256080140.60596773.1756564752-83406665.1756564752