This week’s On Story features two highly celebrated Irish filmmakers, Terry George and Jim Sheridan. First, Terry George discusses his collaboration with Sheridan and the second film in the pair’s Irish trilogy, In the name of the Father. Later, Jim Sheridan on his life, and work from the theatre stage to the big screen.

Filmmaker Terry George made his screenwriting debut in 1993 with the semi-biographical courtroom drama, In the Name of the Father. The film was the first of three collaborations between Terry George and writer-director Jim Sheridan depicting the ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century, commonly referred to as The Troubles. 

In the Name of the Father is based on the true-life story of the Guilford Four, who were falsely convicted of the 1974 IRA bombings, which killed five people and was partly adapted from the autobiography of the film’s main character Gerry Conlon. In the Name of the Father received seven Academy Award® nominations including Best Actor for Daniel Day Lewis, Best Supporting Actor for the late Pete Postlethwaite, Best Supporting Actress for Emma Thompson, Best Director- Jim Sheridan and even Best Picture. 

Following a distinguished career in the theatre between the 1960s and the 1980s, Jim Sheridan wrote and directed his first critically acclaimed feature My Left Foot in 1989. He followed in 1990 with The Field, which he also wrote and directed and in the same year he wrote the screenplay Into The West. Jim Sheridan collaborated with today’s other guest, Terry George on three films, In the Name of the Father, Some Mother’s Son and The Boxer. His films have garnered a remarkable sixteen Academy Award nominations and two wins and his latest film, The Secret Scripture is slated for release later this year.