The late Irish actor, Donal Donnelly, remembered

The actor Donal Donnelly, who died on Monday in Chicago, aged 78, was best known to the public for his cinematic roles in The Godfather: Part III and The Dead, but is remembered by his friends primarily as man of the theatre.

“He was the real thing, a fabulous stage actor,” said Noel Pearson.

Born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1931, to Irish parents, James, a doctor from Tyrone, and Nora (nee O’Connor), a teacher from Kerry, the family soon moved to Dublin, and Donnelly attended Synge St CBS, where he acted in school plays alongside Milo O’Shea and Eamonn Andrews.

After an apprenticeship at Callaghan’s outfitters on Dame Street, he left the trade to join the Gate Theatre, and subsequently joined Godfrey Quigley’s Globe Theatre in Dun Laoghaire. He later moved to London, where he met his wife, Patsy, a dancer, on the stage.

His break came in 1964, when he was cast as Gar Private

Short drama-documentary in the IFI

Sanctuary is a series of 26 ultra-short stories of asylum and refuge in Ireland, being shown in rotation before features in the IFI this month. The stories are all based on interviews I’ve done with people seeking asylum, and were performed by a collection of well known and emerging actors and writers.

Documentary film: The Richness of Change

The Richness of Change is a series of ten ultra-short films, documenting immigration into Ireland, that I directed. Each one-minute film tells the story of one person’s move to Ireland. The films were produced by Fomacs and were broadcast on RTE in April 2008. They were commissioned by the Immigrant Council of Ireland, and originally shown at the Council’s conference, ‘The Richness of Change’, on October 4, 2007.