While the world is celebrating all things Irish on St. Patrick's Day, drinking Guinness and wearing green top hats, we are celebrating some of the greatest living Irish-men and -women. Who's your favourite famous face on our list?
Graham Norton on The Graham Norton Show, 2021 / Image credit: Matt Crossick/PA Wire/PA Images
Graham Norton
(Talk show presenter: The Graham Norton Show)
By far the greatest talk show host on the planet, Dublin-born Graham Norton is unique in that the guests that he brings out all remain on the stage after their interviews, which means you end up with the most unlikely pairings on his famous sofa. His early TV appearances include popular Irish comedy Father Ted, and he has commentated on the grand finals of the Eurovision Song Contest for fourteen years. He’s currently a judge on the UK edition of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
Enya
(Singer: “Orinoco Flow”, “Only Time”, “May It Be”)
A pioneer in contemporary Celtic and New-age music, Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist in history. She’s sold 75 million records worldwide, won four Grammys and she lives on her own in a castle in Killiney, County Dublin. While her albums Shepherd Moons, A Day Without Rain and Amarantine are among her best works, she famously recorded music for the adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in 2001.
Liam Neeson
(Actor: Taken, Love Actually, Schindler’s List)
How this guy has managed not to land a single Oscar, BAFTA, Tony or Golden Globe is completely beyond is; he has played some iconic roles in his life including the formidable former CIA operative Bryan Mills in the Taken series, Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s iconic Schindler’s List and Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars’ The Phantom Menace. Born in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, he was actually named after his local Catholic priest.
Saoirse Ronan
(Actor: Hanna, Atonement, Lady Bird)
This American-Irish actress shot to prominence in the 2007 Oscar-winning period drama Atonement when she was just 13-years-old. Since then she’s appeared on everything from Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones and spy thriller Hanna, to Greta Gerwig’s critically acclaimed coming-of-age film Lady Bird and her 2019 adaptation of Little Women in which Saoirse (pronounced SUR-sha) played Jo March.
Colin Farrell
(Actor: The Batman, The Lobster, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them)
Another Dubliner, Colin’s first major role was about as Irish as you can get; he starred in Ballykissangel between 1998 and 1999. He went on to have roles in Hollywood films the likes of Minority Report, A Home at the End of the World and Miami Vice. He won a Golden Globe for In Bruges, and was nominated for the critically acclaimed dystopian black comedy The Lobster. His latest role was as Penguin in Matt Reeves' 2022 film The Batman.
Andrea Corr
(Lead singer of The Corrs: “Breathless”, “Runaway”)
Andrea Corr leads her siblings in the Irish pop-rock band The Corrs from Dundalk, County Louth. The band have sold 40 million albums worldwide, and Andrea herself has released three solo projects; the last being 2020’s Christmas Songs. The Corrs’ most popular album by far is the multi-Platinum 2000 release In Blue, featuring the UK number one single Breathless.
Cillian Murphy
(Actor: Peaky Blinders, A Quiet Place Part II)
Born in Cork, Cillian Murphy has had a broad and interesting acting career with roles in Irish drama Disco Pigs, zombie flick 28 Days Later and Wes Craven horror Red Eye. He was also in Batman Begins, and played a transgender woman in Breakfast on Pluto. He has collaborated with Christopher Nolan on three film projects so far: The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception and Dunkirk. Perhaps his most memorable role in recent years, however, was Tommy Shelby in the BBC series Peaky Blinders.
Becky Lynch
(Wrestler: WWE Raw Women's Champion)
Nobody screams “strong independent Irish woman” like the current Raw Women’s Champion. Hailing from Limerick, she signed her first contract with WWE in 2013 and has held the title of SmackDown Women's Champion at Backlash 2016 no fewer than four times. In 2021 she beat Bianca Belair at SummerSlam in seconds.
Andrew Scott
(Actor: Sherlock, Fleabag, Spectre)
How this actor can go from heart-stoppingly creepy Moriarty in Sherlock to a lovable and sexy priest in Fleabag is beyond me but there is nothing Andrew Scott can’t do. He’s also had earth-shattering roles in the Bond film Spectre, LGBTQI+ flick Pride and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. Born in Dublin, Scott has won numerous film awards over the years as well as two coveted Laurence Oliver Awards for his work in theatre.
MORE: Five films starring Irish actors you need to watch this St. Patrick’s Day!
Clodagh McKenna
(TV chef: This Morning, Rachael Ray, Clodagh's Irish Food Trails)
One of our favourite female TV chefs has got to be the lively Clodagh (CLO-da) McKenna. Frequently a guest on ITV’s This Morning, she’s got the sunniest personality of any TV chef we’ve ever known and her recipes are to die for. She’s also had numerous appearances on The Rachael Ray Show, and was even the subject of her own Ireland-based TV series Clodagh's Irish Food Trails. Her debut recipe book was released in 2009 under the title The Irish Farmers' Market Cookbook.
Tagged in Ireland St. Patrick's Day