An Cailín Ciúin filmakers receive honourary UCD degree

Colm Bairead and Cleona Ni Chrualaoi were conferred with UCD Honorary Degrees of Doctor of Arts on Thursday 5 September 2024 at O’Reilly Hall, University College Dublin, in recognition of their achievements in the field of Irish language filmmaking, particularly in response to the global success of their feature film An Cailín Ciúin.

Alongside box-office records in its opening weekend and becoming the highest-grossing Irish language feature film to date, An Cailín Ciúin was the first ever Irish film to be nominated in the ‘Best International Feature Film’ category at the 95th Academy Awards.

Released in 2022, the film earned seven Irish Film & Television Academy Awards including Best Film, Best Director, and also Best Actress for young Irish star Catherine Clinch, with An Cailín Ciúin marking her film debut.

As a team and as individuals, Colm and Cleona have extensive experience working through the medium of Irish and their combined success reflects the evolution of the Irish language at home and abroad over the past quarter century.

As writer and director, Colm’s documentary work has garnered numerous Irish and international nominations and awards. In 2012, he was honoured by the Screen Directors’ Guild of Ireland for his ‘outstanding work as a director in the Irish language’.

Cleona’s career has enjoyed a similar trajectory working through both Irish and English, and her production credits include works of documentary, docusoap and docudrama, such as the IFTA-winning Connected along with the groundbreaking IFTA-nominated series The Joy portraying life inside Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison.

The pair have proved themselves to be outstanding ambassadors for the creative arts, for Irish filmmaking and for the Irish language itself, and their success aligns with UCD’s global engagement objective: to bring the best of the world to Ireland, and the best of Ireland to the world.

The official citation was read by Dr Aoife Whelan, UCD School of Irish, Celtic Studies and Folkore.