Ireland’s film and TV hotspots

The natural beauty of Ireland is legendary, while the cities, towns and villages, from the gritty to the picturesque, have their own compelling appeal, and that’s before we even mention the watering holes blessed with live tunes and good craic. Little wonder the Emerald Isle is a joy for production crews, especially in this era of multiple streaming channels. Here are five filming hotspots that you may recognise.

DUBLIN

While the cobbled courtyards and university buildings of Trinity College are familiar sights on screen thanks to the likes of Normal People and Circle Of Friends, more cameras of late have been pointed on the fringes of Ireland’s capital. Apple TV comedy-drama Bad Sisters, starring Sharon Horgan, has showcased Dublin’s well-to-do seaside suburbs, including Howth, Malahide and Sandycove (all stops on the DART train network if you’d like to visit).

If you’re feeling brave, you could take a dip at Sandycove’s Forty Foot, a popular year-round bathing cove fed by what James Joyce described in his novel Ulysses as “the snotgreen sea”. Traditionally the pool was for men only, but feminists began swimming there in the 1970s and it’s where the siblings in Bad Sisters go for their annual festive swim.

Another nail-biting Dublin drama — and co-starring Dubliners Aidan Gillen and Clare Dunne — is SBS hit Kin, which revolves around the fictional Kinsella crime family. The architecturally impressive Aviva Stadium, which stages international rugby and soccer games, catches the eye in numerous scenes, while some of Kin’s shady business meetings play out at a lofty bar-restaurant overlooking Dublin’s resurgent Docklands district. That’s actually inside The Mayson, a hip and friendly new hotel that’s transformed a derelict quayside Victorian warehouse and townhouse.

COUNTY WICKLOW

A short drive south of Dublin brings you to the wonderful Wicklow Mountains National Park, in whose shadow sprawls the Luggala Estate. Key scenes from season two of The Tourist, the Stan thriller starring Jamie Dornan and Danielle Macdonald, were filmed here and anyone who watched Vikings will recognise Lough Tay, which is often called the “Guinness Lake” because the estate was formerly owned by the Guinness brewing family.

Doubling as fictional Kattegat in Vikings, a historical drama that ran for six seasons, plus a spin-off, this glacial lake was one of several County Wicklow locations to masquerade as medieval Scandinavia. Although it’s on private land, the public are usually allowed in to glean rousing views from the heather-flanked hiking paths. Another Wicklow country estate, Powerscourt, has long been a prolific filming location, with everything from Ella Enchanted to The Tudors shot on the grounds. This is a well-established visitor attraction with an imposing mansion, resplendent gardens and Ireland’s highest waterfall.

COUNTY WEXFORD

In neighbouring County Wexford, the pretty town of Enniscorthy, nestled by the River Slaney, featured in Brooklyn, a 2015 adaptation of Colm Toibin’s novel boosted by an Oscar-nominated turn by American-Irish actor Saoirse Ronan. The makers of this 1950s-set period romance also pitched up to film on the nearby dune-backed beach at Curracloe. Its golden sands had previously caught the attention of Steven Spielberg, who used the beach for the D-Day Normandy landing scenes during the dramatic opening of his World War II epic, Saving Private Ryan.

Fresh from his Academy award-winning performance in Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy came to County Wexford to shoot Small Things Like These, which is based on the novel of the same name by Irish author Claire Keegan. Murphy stars in and produces this movie, which is set in the 1980s with its storyline trawling through Ireland’s scandalous Magdalene laundries (asylums for young women, mostly run by the Catholic Church). Scenes were captured in the Wexford town of New Ross, a half-hour drive from Waterford, Ireland’s oldest city, which was founded by the actual Vikings in CE914.

COUNTY CORK

Cillian Murphy hails from Ireland’s south-western corner, which boasts some of the Emerald Isle’s most glorious coastal scenery, its sparkling bays and fishing villages flaunted in a host of flicks and TV shows. Most recently, they include Bodkin, a Netflix black comedy starring Siobhan Cullen as a hard-nosed reporter seeking to solve a cold case in sleepy West Cork, with the waterfronts and brightly painted houses of Union Hall and Glandore providing an atmospheric backdrop as the mystery unfolds.

One of the most loved Irish films of recent times, The Young Offenders (2016) also promotes the bucolic scenery of West Cork, but focuses mainly on the foolish antics of two loveable rogues from Cork City, Jock and Conor (played by Chris Walley and Alex Murphy). The film evolved into a TV series, running for four seasons. You can, like the lads, take bike rides through the gorgeous rolling West Cork countryside — although it’s best to hire some wheels through the official channels and not pinch them off the street like they usually do.

Cork itself features in dozens of scenes, most notably in the hilly Shandon neighbourhood, north of the River Lee, and at the English Market, where Conor sometimes helps out (or hinders) his long-suffering mother Mairead (Hilary Rose), who works at the fishmonger. Pat O’Connell, the stall’s real-life owner, has made cameo appearances in The Young Offenders and welcomed — and cracked jokes to — the late Queen Elizabeth II when she visited the market in 2011.

WILD ATLANTIC WAY

County Cork is the start (or end point) of one of Europe’s most spellbinding road trips, which snakes 2600km up the west coast, finishing (or starting) at County Donegal near Ireland’s northernmost point. Yet, impressed by its hulking cliffs, sweeping beaches and offshore islands, filmmakers were flocking here way before the route was officially launched as the “Wild Atlantic Way” a decade ago. Scenes for Ryan’s Daughter (1970) and Far And Away (1992), with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, were filmed on the delightful Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, from which you can glimpse Skellig Michael, a craggy windswept island, and former monks’ retreat, where Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) was sighted at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. When the waves aren’t too choppy, tours zip out to this UNESCO World Heritage site from the little marina of Portmagee, just off the Ring of Kerry.

Further up the coast, you can visit the two islands that stood in for the fictional island depicted in The Banshees Of Inisherin, an Oscar-nominated 2022 tragicomedy with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Ferries go to Inis Mor (Inishmore), one of the Aran Islands off County Clare and County Galway, while a road bridge connects Achill Island with the mainland of County Mayo. The islands’ tourist offices have compiled self-guided trails that’ll help you find the stunning filming locations. Don’t expect to find JJ Devine’s pub, though. Purpose-built for the movie, and the stage for some of its most memorable scenes, it was dismantled and taken away from Achill after filming but has been reconstructed at Mee’s Bar in Kilkerrin. This remote village is an hour’s drive north of Galway City.

Steve McKenna was a guest of Tourism Ireland. They have not influenced or read this story before publication.

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+ For help in planning a trip to the Emerald Isle, see ireland.com