Popular actress Eileen Walsh has been chosen as the recipient of the 2023 Maureen O’Hara Award by the Kerry Film Festival.
This is the 24th year of celebration of movies of all genres and the event will take place from October 19-22.
Walsh’s notable roles include The Van, The Last Bus Home, When Brendan met Trudy, The Magdalene Sisters, Pure Mule, Eden and Catastrophe.
She is also a revered stage actor, having recently starred in the Lyndsey Turner directed film The Crucible and Girl on an Alter directed by Annabelle Comyn.
The actress willr3ceiv her award at a reception in the Randles Hotel in Killarney on Friday, October 20.
Festival programme director, Declan Lynch, said: ”Eileen is one of Ireland’s finest actors and her inclusion as a Maureen O’Hara award recipient is an opportunity for us to reflect on her unique and singular career to date”
Eileen Walsh recalled a childhood photograph with her sister, Bernadette, alongside her sitting on a picnic bench.
“I had taken a chunk of my communion money and bought a beige t-shirt and matching skirt. I pulled my knee socks up and smiled for the camera. My parents had brought us for a day trip to see The Quiet Man house,” she said on the movie that made Maureen O’Hara a household name.
“I’m so delighted to receive this Maureen O’Hara Award. Her films are one thing but her lasting friendships and continued collaborations with directors and actors is a thing to admire and aspire to.
“As a proud Cork woman, I’m only sorry it’s the Kingdom of Kerry that got there first to give me such an award. Míle Buíochas,” she added.
The opening night of the festival will be celebrated on Thursday, October 19 with a reception which will be followed by a screening of the opening film for 2023, Michael Holly and Mieke Vanmechelen’s Hungry Hill, in the IMC Killarney. This Irish documentary explores the lives of sheep farmers in West Cork.
Mieke Vanmechelen has been Kerry’s filmmaker-in-residence for the past three years.
Other Irish highlights include Dubliner Patricia Kelly’s debut drama Verdigris as well as A Greyhound of a Girl from Italian animator Enzo d’Alo and a double bill featuring John Farrelly’s The Sleep Experiment and Ian Hunt-Duffy Double Blind.
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