A south Sligo woman was among the winners at last night’s Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards ceremony.
Dearbhla Walsh, from Tubbercurry, won the award in the drama section for director of The Handmaid’s Tale.
Last night’s virtual IFTA Awards was the first of its kind on Irish television.
Dearbhla is an award-winning director who has worked on a variety of drama series including Tales from the Loop, EastEnders, Shameless, Penny Dreadful, The Tudors and the Netflix Marvel series The Punisher.
She won the 2009 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a miniseries, movie or dramatic Special for Little Dorrit.
She directed Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, starring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench, a television film adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel of the same name.
She has also directed several art/dance films, funded by the Arts Council, in collaboration with Fearghus Ó Conchúir including Match and I’m Roger Casement.
Walsh has been nominated for the Irish Film and Television Awards eight times and won twice previously for directing in 2011 and 2018 respectively.
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, of Normal People fame, and which was partly filmed in Streedagh and in Tubbercurry in County Sligo, presented the awards for Best Short Film and Best Animated Short.
Speaking afterwards to Ocean FM News, Dearbhla had this reaction.
Dearbhla Walsh’s father Joe told of his delight with his daughter’s success, adding that her late mother Maeve would be even prouder.
