(updated 2024)
In the wake of the 2013 Academy Awards I searched the internet but could not find a definitive list of Irish winners in Oscar History. I opened the Academy Awards site and searched though the history of the awards, Googling every Irish, English, and Scottish sounding winner’s name.
If, by chance, I have missed anyone please leave a comment below!
(This post has been viewed by 3,000+ people and no one has come back to me yet.)
Included are people born in Ireland, Northern Ireland and those who hold dual citizenship with Ireland and another country.
Enjoy.
CEDRIC GIBBONS
won 11 Best Art/Set Direction Oscars between 1930 and 1956
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1930)
The Merry Widow (1934)
Pride and Prejudice (1940)
Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
Gaslight (1944)
The Yearling (1946)
Little Women (1949)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Somebody Up There Likes me (1956)
Born in Dublin, Gibbons moved to study in New York and is credited with the design of the Oscar statuette.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
Best (Adapted) Screenplay Pygmalion (1939)
Born in Dublin, Shaw was the first person to receive a Nobel Prize and an Oscar and held that record until Bob Dylan matched his success in 2019.
BARRY FITZGERALD
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Going My Way (1944)
Born in Dublin, Fitzgerald was the only actor ever nominated for the Academy Award for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor in the same year for the same role. After he received this double nomination, the Academy immediately changed their rules to prevent this from happening again, rules which have remained unchanged to this day.
MICHÈLE BURKE
has won two Oscars.
(shared) – Best Makeup Quest for Fire (1981)
(shared) – Best Makeup Dracula (1992)
Born in Kildare, Michèle holds a US, EU and Canadian Passport she is also fluent in English, French, Spanish and some Irish.
JOSIE MCAVIN
(shared) – Best Art Direction Out of Africa (1986)
Born in Ireland, McAvin presented the IFI Irish Film Archive with her Academy Award and Emmy statuettes, along with a collection of books, photographs and sketches that she had collected throughout her distinguished career.
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
the only actor to have won three awards for Best Actor at the Academy Awards.
Best Actor My Left Foot (1989)
Best Actor There Will Be Blood (2007)
Best Actor Lincoln (2013)
Though he was born in the UK Day-Lewis is also an Irish Citizen and lives here in Co. Wicklow.
Here are a few roles which he turned down:
Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), a role in Terminator Salvation (2009), Jor-El in Superman: Man of Steel (2013), lead role in Mary Reilly (1996), a role in Cutthroat Island (1995), the lead role in The English Patient (1996), Simon Templar in The Saint (1997).
The late and great Sir John Gielgud had this to say about Day-Lewis,
“He had what every actor in Hollywood wants: talent. And what every actor in England wants: looks”.
BRENDA FRICKER
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Actress My Left Foot (1989)
Born in Dublin Fricker was once heard to say
“When you are lying drunk at the airport you’re Irish. When you win an Oscar you’re British.”
NEIL JORDAN
Best Original Screenplay The Crying Game (1993)
Born in Sligo, Jordan is quoted as saying,
“I’m fascinated by monsters, monstrous people and fascinated with illogic and irrationality.”
PETER O’TOOLE
Honorary Academy Award in 2003
Born in Connemara, on accepting the award O’Toole, at 78, vowed to
“…win the lovely bugger outright”.
CORINNE MARRINAN
Best Documentary Short – A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2006)
Though born in New York, Marrinan holds dual Irish & U.S. citizenship, and as part of her acceptance speech she said,
“I’d like to thank the Academy for seating me next to George Clooney at the nominee’s luncheon.”
MARTIN MCDONAGH
Best Short Film (Live Action) Six Shooter (2006)
Born in the U.K., McDonagh holds both Irish and U.K. passports. Since moving into film, McDonagh has frequently used actors that have also appeared in the original theatre runs of his plays.
GLEN HANSARD
(Shared) Best Song Once (2008)
Born in Dublin, Hansard was the first Irishman to win an Oscar for Best Song. He was offered a shot at the part of Rorschach in Watchmen (2009) but had to bow out due to the fanfare surrounding his Oscar nomination (and ultimate win) for song “Falling Slowly” from Once (2006).
RICHARD BANEHAM
(as part of a team) – Best Visual Effects – Avatar (2010)
Born in Ireland Baneham worked as an animator or animation supervisor for the following films, The Iron Giant, Cats & Dogs, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and oversaw the animation of the character of Gollum) on The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
TERRY GEORGE & OORLATH GEORGE
Father and Daughter
Best Short Film (Live Action) The Shore (2012)
Born in Belfast, Terry George is quoted as saying,
“Film today is more and more concentrated on the amusement park element. If a writer can attach an actor or a producer who has some clout, then you can arm yourself. Otherwise, a script simply becomes a road map to attract money and talent.”
MAUREEN O’HARA
Honourary Achievement Award 2015
Born in Ranelagh, Dublin as Maureen FitzSimons she mentioned three men in her acceptance speech who shaped her career, Charles Laughton, John Wayne and John Ford. O’Hara is quotes as saying
“I made John Wayne sexy. I take credit for that.”
BENJAMIN CLEARY
Best Short Film (Live Action) – Stutterer (2016)
Benjamin Cleary is an Irish writer, director and producer from Dublin.
During his acceptance speech Cleary said:
“Every day is a proud day to be Irish, but today even more so… Sláinte!”
BONUS Trivia from 2020
There was no Irish Oscar winner in 2020 but we still managed to score well!
Irish composer Ms. Eímear Noone became the first woman to conduct an orchestra at the Oscars!
2022
KENNETH BRANAGH
After for his fifth nomination Branagh wins the Best Original Screenplay Award for Belfast (2021)
2023
A bumper year with 14 Irish nominations!
And Ireland came away with two awards…
Tom Berkeley and Ross White
‘An Irish Goodbye’ won Best Live-Action Short Award for Tom Berkeley and Ross White. Their acceptance speech included a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ from the Academy’s audience for the short film’s star James Martin.
And
Richard Baneham
Richard Baneham took his second award for Best Visual Effects (as part of the Avatar: The Way of Water Effects Team) and managed more than a cupla focal by begining his acceptance speech with ‘Go raibh míle maith agat’.
That’s it for 2023…
2024
Another win for Ireland this year thanks to the deft acting prowess of…
Cillian Murphy
Cillian Murphy becomes the second Irish citizen to win the Best Actor award. He protrayed J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s multi award winning ‘Oppenheimer’.
Murphy acknowledged the consequences of Oppenheimer’s work in his acceptance speech…
“We made a film about the man who created the atomic bomb and for better or worse we’re now living in Oppenheimer’s world now. So I’d like to dedicate this to the peacemakers everywhere.”
And also remarking…
“I’m a very proud Irishman standing here tonight so.”
And raised his statuette in salute!
TALLY
By my rankings (as of 2024) that is 34 Oscars over 30 films for 21 Irish filmmaking artists so far!
You may also enjoy Every Irish Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Compiled from
beanmimo 
Only one observation, I’m sure Glen Hansard’s movie was called ‘wince’ wasn’t it?
Hee hee, poor Glen, I found that ex-pats loved this film more than people living in Ireland.
Oscar winner Greer Garson for Mrs Miniver. Garson born in County Down, Ireland.
Hi Mitchell,
thanks for this, I did a quick check and both IMDB and WikiP say she was born in Essex, do you have any hard evidence to suggest they are wrong?
Ben
I don’t think this qualifies as “hard evidence” but check the bottom para of her obit here http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituarygreer-garson-1303867.html Very curious.
Oopsie, there’s also this http://www.reelclassics.com/Actresses/Greer/greer-bio.htm debunking her claims of being born in Ireland.
Yup, she nearly made it in but on further inspection I had to include her out 🙂
Thank you for this interesting and entertaining resource that we will share with the followers of “Eire Of Success” http://www.eireofsuccess.com – Michael Sloyan (Founder)
Hi Michael, thank you very much for the links! Glad you enjoyed them. You might also like two other posts of mine one on the Catalpa rescue and the other on Actor and Director William Desmond Taylor?
I’d love to see the team behind Boogaloo & Graham joining the list next week!
Yes Cathy! Rooting for them!
Just a little trivia, slightly off point Jamie Dornan is Greer Garson’s 1st cousin 10 times removed or something crazy like that! And tentative links, Judy Dench’s mother was born and raised in Dublin, her dad was born in England but also raised in Dublin and Julie Walter’s mum was from Mayo. Oh and Maureen O’Hara received an honorary Oscar in 2014.
Nice trivia Bambi! I knew about O’Hara and was waiting until they announced it officially tonight before including her. Updated now.
As far as I know, Greer Garson was not born in Ireland, but she liked to tell people that she was. She was of Irish-Scots ancestry and she did LIVE in Ireland when she was a child.
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A good read, thank you Ben