Database of Irish Films

This website contains a searchable database of close to 1000 entries. The database has been compiled by Jennie Carlsten, whose work has been funded by the SSHRC grant. The Irish Films Database is an ongoing project.

To access the database, please click here. A separate window will open in your browser. Please note that the database will be unavailable on Sundays between the hours of 9pm-midnight, PST.

The completed database will include genre classification, basic production information, and abstracts for fiction features and shorts produced since 1981. It includes films made in Ireland, made by Irish directors working elsewhere, or with explicitly Irish content. The database is a work in progress; additions, changes, or corrections are welcomed; please email the database manager with your comments, articles or revisions.

To Search the Database:

  1. In Quick Search, you may enter a single genre term. You may also search at the directory by director’s name: type the name and add the wildcard symbol * (e.g.; ‘Jordan*’). To Quick Search for a title, enter the title without any preceding articles (e.g., ‘Actors’, not ‘The Actors’).
  2. In Advanced Search, you may narrow your search for films that belong to hybrid or multiple genres (e.g., ‘romance’ and ‘comedy’ will produce a list of romantic comedies; ‘Troubles’ and ‘drama’, a list of dramas about the Troubles).Enter the term in the left-hand field; pick ‘Keywords’ option in the right-hand drop-down menu; choose a Boolean operator (‘and’, ‘or’, ‘not’) in the far left drop-down menus.
  3. The Advanced Search function is also useful to search Author fields, or choose to search ‘All Non-Indexed Fields’ to search abstracts, cast, crew, etc.

For a List of All Films in the Database:

Enter ‘1981-2006’ in the Quick Search field.

A Note on Film Availability:

‘In File’ in the Film Availability field indicates that this film title appears to be available for purchase from a distributor or retail source. If you know of a source for a title listed as ‘Not In File’, we’d appreciate it if you let us know! If you are searching for an individual title and would like to know where we found it, we’d be happy to share resources; please email the database manager.

Keywords Used for Genre Classification:

  • Action
  • Adventure
  • Animation
  • Biopic
  • Children
  • Comedy
  • Crime
  • Diaspora
  • Drama
  • Experimental
  • Fantasy
  • Gay
  • Historic
  • Horror
  • Irish-language
  • Musical
  • Road
  • Romance
  • Sci-fi
  • Short
  • Thriller
  • Troubles
  • TV
  • War

Incoming tags terms:

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