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David Ireland (playwright)

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

David Ireland (born 1976 or 1977) is a Northern Irish-born playwright and actor, known for his award-winning plays Cyprus Avenue and Ulster American.

Early life and education

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David Ireland was born in 1976 or 1977 Sandy Row, Belfast, but grew up in Ballybeen, Dundonald, County Down. His father was a heavy drinker.[1] He was raised as a Protestant, but gave up his faith as a teenager (later embracing Christianity as an adult).[2]

Ireland attended Brooklands Primary School. He then attended the Royal Belfast Academical Institution,[3] before receiving training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.[4] He began drinking whisky at a young age.[2]

As a young boy, he wrote poems and stories, but later, by the age of 18, he had stopped writing and wanted to be an actor.[5]

Career

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Stage

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After being unemployed as an actor for some years, aged around 30, Ireland started to write plays, and found it much more enjoyable than acting.[5] In 2009, his What The Animals Say was produced by Òran Mór in Glasgow[6] as part of their lunchtime programme of new plays, "A Play, a Pie and a Pint". After this, he started getting calls from TV producers.[5] In 2010, Everything Between Us, first produced by Solas Nua and Tinderbox Theatre Company, was performed in Belfast, Scotland, and Washington, D.C. It won the Stewart Parker Trust Award,[7] the BBC Audio Drama Award, and the Meyer-Whitworth Award for Best New Play.[8]

In 2016, Ireland's Cyprus Avenue premiered at the Royal Court Theatre.[9] It was awarded the 2017 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play, and the 2017 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Drama. The play then transferred to The Public Theater, New York City,[10] the Abbey Theatre, Dublin,[11] and the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast. It returned to the Royal Court in February 2019 for a four-week run,[12] and had its Australian debut in May 2019 at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Theatre.[13] The Abbey Theatre performance with Stephen Rea was ranked by The Guardian writers as the 27th best theatre show since 2000.[14]

In 2018, Ireland's satirical dark comedy Ulster American was performed by Traverse Theatre as part of their Edinburgh Festival Fringe season.[15] It was awarded the Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award for that year.[16] In 2019, it was nominated for Best Female Performance, Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Male Performance at the Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland,[17] winning the first three.[18] It had its London debut at Riverside Studios in 2023 in a production starring Woody Harrelson, Andy Serkis and Louisa Harland.[19] In 2025, a production of Ulster American by The Balally Players placed second overall in the national RTÉ All-Ireland Drama Festival Circuit competition and received the Abbey Award. The production later transferred to the Abbey Theatre’s Peacock Stage, where it played four sold-out performances in May 2025.[20][21][22]

In August 2024, his play The Fifth Step (the first since 2018) was staged at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival, with two men, played by Jack Lowden and Sean Gilder meeting at Alcoholics Anonymous. Directed by Finn den Hertog, reviewer Arifa Akbar called the play "a puzzle of a play, but in a good way", giving the production 4 out of 5 stars.[23][2] In May 2025 the play came to London, in a National Theatre production directed by Finn den Hertog, with Jack Lowden reprising his role opposite Martin Freeman. Chris Wiegand, writing in The Guardian, gave the production 4 out of 5 stars, calling the play a "knotty, often hilarious two-hander" [24] The NT production was released in cinemas in November 2025 by National Theatre Live.[5][25]

Television

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Writing

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Ireland's first writing for TV was on River City, a soap set in Glasgow, and he went on to write an episode of the RTÉ/BBC sitcom The Young Offenders.[5]

His first creation on television was the 2023 Sky Atlantic series The Lovers.[26] Ireland wrote ITV's six-part black comedy thriller Coldwater, which aired in September 2025.[27][28]

Acting

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In 2018, Ireland played Sean Devlin in the Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls.[29]

Personal life

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Ireland met his wife Jennifer while he was acting in Glasgow. They have two children.[3]

He was an alcoholic as a young man, but gave up drinking at 23. Having given up the Christian faith he was raised in as a teenager, he embrace Christianity again as an adult, from around 2020.[2]

Awards

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Selected works

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Selected filmography

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Actor

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Writer

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References

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  1. ↑ Lloyd, Will (30 August 2024). "Playwright David Ireland: 'The violence and rage in me comes out when I write'". The Times. Archived from the original on 26 November 2025. the 48-year-old
  2. 1 2 3 4 Ireland, David (6 August 2024). "'I went straight to whisky at 14': David Ireland on tackling booze on stage". The Guardian. Interviewed by Brooks, Libby. Archived from the original on 8 January 2026. Retrieved 11 June 2026. he last had an alcoholic drink at the age of 23 – he's now 47 –
  3. 1 2 McAdam, Noel (11 April 2019). "Belfast playwright David Ireland on courting controversy with Ulster American". The Irish News. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  4. ↑ McCormack, Chris (7 April 2016). "David Ireland: 'I feel compelled to write about the Troubles'". The Stage. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Ireland, David (12 November 2025). "Working Lives: Screenwriter David Ireland". Royal Television Society. Interviewed by Bell, Matthew. Archived from the original on 23 November 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  6. ↑ "Theatre review: What The Animals Say". The Scotsman. 20 May 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  7. ↑ "Stewart Parker Trust Awards". Arts Council of Northern Ireland. 25 March 2011. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Everything Between Us, by David Ireland". Finborough Theatre. 16 May 2017. Archived from the original on 13 February 2017. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  9. ↑ "Cyprus Avenue – Royal Court 2016". Royal Court. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  10. ↑ Brantley, Ben (25 June 2018). "Review: Stephen Rea Is One Really Mad Man in 'Cyprus Avenue'". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  11. ↑ Crawley, Peter (17 February 2016). "Cyprus Avenue review: Stephen Rea delivers a masterful performance". The Irish Times. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  12. ↑ "Cyprus Avenue – Royal Court 2019". Royal Court. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  13. ↑ Kale, Neha (14 May 2019). "'In my family there were a lot of angry men': The political is personal for David Ireland". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  14. ↑ Billington, Michael; Soloski, Alexis; Love, Catherine; Fisher, Mark; Wiegand, Chris (17 September 2019). "The 50 best theatre shows of the 21st century". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  15. ↑ Cooper, Neil (19 July 2018). "'You never hear an Irish American saying they're Protestant,' says playwright David Ireland". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 11 October 2018.
  16. ↑ McElroy, Steven (24 August 2018). "'Ulster American' Wins Edinburgh Theater Prize". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  17. ↑ "2019 Shortlist – Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS)". Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  18. ↑ "2019 CATS winners announced – Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS)". Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  19. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (14 December 2023). "Ulster American review – Woody Harrelson and Andy Serkis perfectly awful in anarchic comedy". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 February 2024.
  20. ↑ "RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival winners announced". RTÉ.ie. 18 May 2025. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  21. ↑ "Ballyduff Drama Group scoops 2025 RTÉ All Ireland Drama Award". dramaFestival.ie. May 2025. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  22. ↑ "Ulster American". Abbey Theatre. Retrieved 19 June 2025.
  23. ↑ Akbar, Arifa (22 August 2024). "The Fifth Step review – Jack Lowden excels as an alcoholic finding a sponsor". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  24. ↑ Wiegand, Chris (20 May 2025). "The Fifth Step review – Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman go head to head". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  25. ↑ "NT Live: The Fifth Step". Palace Cinemas. 28 November 2025. Retrieved 11 June 2026.
  26. ↑ "Sky Puts Darkly Comic Series 'The Lovers' From 'Doctor Foster' Producer Drama Republic Into Production". Deadline. 28 June 2023. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  27. ↑ Mangan, Lucy (14 September 2025). "Coldwater review – Andrew Lincoln's wild Scottish thriller is top quality nonsense". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  28. ↑ Singh, Anita. "Coldwater, ITV1 review: Mad vicars, masculinity and murder, what more could you want from a TV drama?". telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2 December 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
  29. ↑ Lawson, Mark (18 February 2019). "David Ireland: 'I find it hard to end my plays without violence'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
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