Emmy award winning actor Brendan Gleeson has confessed he was deeply worried about playing Winston Churchill in the HBO film “Into the Storm” that won him the award.

In celebration of Halloween and its Celtic origins, we’ve compiled a list of 10 great horror flicks that have Irish roots themselves.

Gabriel Byrne may have missed out on an Emmy win for his starring role in “In Treatment,” but the Irish still shone on Emmy night with Irish favorite Brendan Gleeson taking home the globe.

The countdown has begun for the 61st Emmys which take place in Los Angeles Sunday night and the Irish are well up there this year. Story / 'In Treatment star Gabriel Byrne finally embraces therapy / Click here

Nobody ever gets airs and graces in Ireland, no matter how big they get, says megastar Cillian Murphy – instead they just get made fun of.

To the best of our knowledge Bono and Liam Neeson have never worked on a project together, so it’s high time the two Irish icons joined forces to create something special.

Hollywood cliques have been around for decades. But it’s time for the Rats, Brats and Frat boys to move over – because here comes the Pat Pack.

The 10th annual Wee Craic Fest is almost upon us. Younger sibling of the annual Irish Film Fleadh, the September 17 one-night only event is a special showcase of the best of new Irish music and short films.

The Toronto Film festival, which takes place from September 10-20, will see a plethora to top Irish acting talent in attendance as Hollywood's top Irish stars are slated to turn up to support their respective movies.

Nominations for the 61st annual Primetime Emmy Awards have been announced, and Irish and Irish-American names alike are dominating the list. As expected Irish actor Gabriel Byrne, along with his fellow “In Treatment” stars Dianne Wiest and Hope Davis, is nominated for an Emmy.

IrishCentral has established the Irish links to both the “Twilight” vampire craze and the “Harry Potter” phenomenon. So now, through green-tinged lenses, we take a closer look at the two phenomena and ask: which epic series is better?

Irish actor Conleth Hill, the star of Woody Allen’s new film “Whatever Works,” is probably the least flashy actor you could hope to meet. But behind his low-key style, Hill has enjoyed an acting career that already outshines almost every rival of his generation.

Irish actor Devon Murray will return in "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" as Seamus Finnigan, a.k.a. “O’Flaherty,” another student at Hogwarts who’s known for having his spells blow up in his face – literally.

Irish star Brendan Gleeson has been receiving rave reviews for his portrayal of British WWII prime minister Winston Churchill in HBO's "Into the Storm," directed by fellow Irish man Thaddeus O’Sullivan. The film, which is a sequel to the top-rated "The Gathering Storm" premiers tonight at 9pm EST and stars Gleeson as Churchill in the thick of World War I. Reuters said Gleeson's performance carries the film while Canada's Globe and Mail lauded Gleeson for "a rousing yet deeply personal performance."

An Irish actor who plays the character of Seamus Finnegan in the "Harry Potter" movies claims that the clamor to get a hold of a script to the upcoming film was so intense, his copy of it had to be moved from his home in County Kildare to a safe house.

The 62nd annual Cannes Film Festival begins today, and at it, Irish film makes a strong showing. A total of 15 Irish productions will be showcased in the next week and a half at the event in order to market Irish film and Ireland as a film location

Actor Cillian Murphy has signed on for a starring role in the film "Inception." The film, which will also star Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page and Michael Caine, is being kept under protective custody by Warner Brothers.

There's a new Irish face for the Harry Potter film series. Domnhall Gleeson, the son of Ireland's much-loved Brendan Gleeson, will star in the latest installment, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I.”

Finally available in the U.S. - now that the brilliant Brendan Gleeson bio-film came and went a few years back - is Paul Williams' excellent book "The General: The True Story of Working-Class Hero and Irish Mob Boss Martin Cahill.

SCARY reading for Bono and his wife Ali last week - a new book on the life and times of the notorious Irish criminal Martin Cahill alleges that Bono's eldest daughter Jordan, now 18, was the subject of a kidnap plot which went off the rails thanks only to the benevolent intervention of Cahill himself. The book, called Martin Cahill, My Father, was written by the late gangster's daughter Frances, and goes on sale this week. It's generated headlines, naturally, due to the kidnap claim, and Frances writes that her dad, was set against causing any harm to Bono and his family.

Black Irish, a new drama about a 15-year-old Irish American boy growing up in the shadow of his emotionally remote father and his deeply troubled family, opens in New York and Boston cinemas this week. CAHIR O'DOHERTY talks to the actors, the writer and director.

BLACK Irish, a Boston-based coming of age drama starring Brendan Gleeson and rising young star Michael Angarano, concerns the volatile relationship between a teenage boy and his spectacularly dysfunctional Irish American family.

AT the ninth annual Magners Irish Film Festival this week in Boston one rule seems to apply - each new Irish film must explore the complexities of modern Irish life.

In this ambition the organizers have succeeded admirably. Screenings of important new feature films like director John Boorman's controversial Celtic Tiger satire The Tiger's Tale will receive their first U.

THE Oscar winning, Tony Award nominated Irish/ English writer Martin McDonagh has lots to look forward to in the New Year.

His first full-length film, In Bruges, with an all-star cast helmed by Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson and Ciaran Hinds, will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17.

The film was selected to open Sundance, one of the world's most prestigious film festivals, so hopes are obviously high that McDonagh's work will wow the first nighters and generate all kinds of positive buzz.

SUNDANCE is teeming with Irish faces this year. Also making the scene last week was Colin Farrell, whose upcoming film In Bruges was selected to open the festival. "I didn't really get the magnitude of it opening the first night," said Farrell, making his first ever appearance at Sundance.

For Terence Mulligan, founder of the Craic Fest, the annual New York Irish film and music bash, his work has been a 10-year labor of love, and this year's lineup is the most ambitious yet. CAHIR O' DOHERTY asks Mulligan what festival-goers can expect this time around.

TEN years ago Terence Mulligan, the founding producer of the annual Craic Festival, was checking out the latest Irish films in Dublin when he wondered what would happen if he showcased the ones that had impressed him most in a big headline event in New York City?

That simple question, he recalls, heralded the birth of the annual event now commonly known as the Craic Fest.

Colin Farrell lets his comic chops loose this week in his new film In Bruges, written and directed by Oscar winner Martin McDonagh. CAHIR O'DOHERTY spoke to Farrell and McDonagh about the project.

IN Bruges, the killingly funny debut full-length film by Oscar and Tony winning writer and director Martin McDonagh, opens on Friday, February 8.

IT was a case of VIP gridlock alert in Dublin last week, and celebrity watchers were the gleeful beneficiaries. A gaggle of stars - Mel, Daniel, Bo, Colin, Charlize to name a few - arrived in the Irish capital for a whole bunch of events that firmly established Dublin as a stop on the celeb map of cool places to be seen.

The photos speak for themselves, right? Many of the notables walked the red carpet at the Irish Film and Television Awards on Sunday night at the Gaiety Theatre, chief among them Mel Gibson, who picked up an award for outstanding contribution to world cinema.

SHE'S worked with A-list Irish actors like Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson and Cillian Murphy, and legendary British veterans like Emma Thompson and Dame Maggie Smith, but in Brideshead Revisited, which opens this week, Co. Limerick native Eimer Ni Mhaoldomhnaigh is tackling the biggest challenge of her career.

Considered surefire Oscar bait, Brideshead Revisited is the epic tale of a doomed aristocratic English Catholic family between the World Wars that opens this Friday.

It was a good night for the Irish at the 66th annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles on January 11. An A-list gathering celebrated the best in TV and film for the year as economic woes were temporarily forgotten while the stars came out to play. Colin Farrell won his first Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his performance in Martin McDonagh's directorial debut "In Bruges.

Irish eye on hollywood

By Tom Deignan

Saoirse Ronan didn't take home an Academy Award at the big show on February 24, but the 13-year-old Hollywood star has a busy 2008 planned. Ronan was nominated as a best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Atonement. Prior to the Oscars, Ronan was happy just to be going to the show, which was nearly canceled because of the prolonged writer's strike.

"In Bruges" is proving to be a real critical darling this award season. The little-seen film, written by Martin McDonagh (the English son of Irish parents) and starring Irish actors Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, picked up another major honor on Sunday night in London, winning the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay for McDonagh. The latest trophy for the comedy/crime caper released early last year comes on the heels of Farrell's Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical win at the Golden Globes last month.

It was released last winter to good critical notice but not much fanfare at the box office, but maybe, just maybe, "In Bruges," starring Irishmen Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, will be the little film that could for 2008.

The pooh-bahs at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which helms the Golden Globes, certainly think so, as the black comedy/crime caper, created by English-born but thoroughly Irish writer/director Martin McDonagh, received a surprising three nominations for the January ceremony.

Farrell and Gleeson will compete against each other in the best actor in a musical or comedy category, while the film will also compete for best musical or comedy.

McDonagh is one of the rarer surnames of Ireland, but exists also as MacDonagh, MacDonough, Donogh, and Donagh. The modern forms of the name are derived from Mac Donnchadha, which originates from the first name Donnchadh, a compound of "donn" meaning brown, plus "cath," a battle. Often translated as "brown one," Donnchadh was a popular first name in ancient times.

Martin McDonagh is having a great year. His debut film "In Bruges" received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and was also nominated for three Golden Globes. His 1997 play "The Cripple of Inishmaan" is finishing up a critically-acclaimed three-month run in New York. The production was the first full co-production between an Irish and an American company.