Ruth McCabe

Acting

Ruth McCabe

Known for

Acting

Credits

47 titles

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 4 titles

Aisha poster
6.0

Aisha lives at a centre for asylum-seekers in Ireland in a state of ongoing uncertainty. Having fled Nigeria after a violent gang murdered members of her family, she is desperately trying to find some degree of permanency, where she and her mother can be reunited and live without fear. As she navigates the complex legal system to seek settlement in Ireland, she sparks an unlikely friendship with Conor, a new guard at the centre. A former prisoner, Conor’s life experience and calming presence resonate with Aisha, allowing for a tentative romance to begin. But the bond between the pair comes under strain as the threat of deportation looms ever larger.

Aisha

2022

Joyride poster
6.0

12-year-old Mully has lost his mother and discovers his debt-ridden father stealing the charity money they've raised in her name. Grabbing the cash, Mully steals a taxi and is shocked to find a woman, Joy, in the back seat with a baby. A straight-talking solicitor who didn't expect to get pregnant, Joy is struggling with motherhood and planning to give her baby to a friend who will raise the child as her own. She joins Mully on a wild journey across Ireland, stealing cars, hitch-hiking, catching ferries and breaking police barricades.

Joyride

2022

The Lost Children of Tuam poster
10.0

When amateur historian Catherine Corless begins examining records from a former Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co. Galway, she stumbles upon evidence pointing towards a deeply troubling past. Refusing to let the questions go, she embarks on a painstaking investigation, putting her in conflict with the Church, State, and local town. As official resistance mounts, and unsettling discoveries emerge, her determination challenges powerful institutions, exposing a hidden chapter of Ireland's past that many would rather keep hidden.

The Lost Children of Tuam

2026

That They May Face the Rising Sun poster
7.2

Joe and Kate Ruttledge have returned from London to live and work among the small, close-knit community near to where Joe grew up. Now deeply embedded in life around the lake, the drama of a year in their lives and those of the memorable characters around them unfolds through the rituals of work, play and the passing seasons as this enclosed world becomes an everywhere.

That They May Face the Rising Sun

2024

2010s · 9 titles

Victoria & Abdul poster
6.9

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim.

Victoria & Abdul

2017

Philomena poster
7.3

A woman searches for her adult son, who was taken away from her decades ago when she was forced to live in a convent.

Philomena

2013

Wake Wood poster
5.6

The parents of a girl who was killed by a savage dog are granted the opportunity to spend three days with their deceased daughter.

Wake Wood

2011

Good Vibrations poster
6.7

The story of music legend Terri Hooley, a key figure in Belfast's punk rock scene. Hooley founded the Good Vibrations store from which a record label sprung, representing bands such as The Undertones, Rudi and The Outcasts.

Good Vibrations

2012

Run & Jump poster
5.9

After a stroke leaves her husband disabled and fundamentally changed, a spirited Irish wife struggles to keep her family members together. All the while they are under the microscope of an American researcher documenting their recovery process.

Run & Jump

2014

Damo & Ivor: The Movie poster
7.6

Damo and Ivor embark on the mother of all adventures to find the last piece of their family puzzle and track down their long lost brother John Joe.

Damo & Ivor: The Movie

2018

Stella Days poster
6.4

A priest stationed in Tipperary, Ireland, is eager to return to Rome. Told he cannot do so until he has raised enough money for the building of a new church, he decides to open a cinema in the local town.

Stella Days

2012

Out of Innocence poster
6.6

After a police investigation, a young mother, confused and scared, confesses to a crime she did not commit and is charged with murder.

Out of Innocence

2019

No artwork available
NR

An alcoholic is haunted by the events of a traumatic childhood. He now carries with him the item that he holds responsible - the note.

The Note

2013

2000s · 8 titles

Breakfast on Pluto poster
7.2

In the 1970s, a young transgender woman called “Kitten” leaves her small Irish town for London in search of love, acceptance, and her long-lost mother.

Breakfast on Pluto

2005

Inside I'm Dancing poster
7.4

Michael is a 24-year-old who has cerebral palsy and long-term resident of the Carrigmore Residential Home for the Disabled, run by the formidable Eileen. His life is transformed when the maverick Rory O'Shea moves in.

Inside I'm Dancing

2004

The Closer You Get poster
5.7

Irish lads send an ad to the Miami Herald inviting fit and enticing women, between the ages of 20 and 21, to live in their isolated Donegal village. The whole town knows about the ad, and it sharpens everyone's sense of the opportunities for happiness already at hand. Kate, a publican with a young daughter, is separating from her husband and catches the eye of a bachelor sheep farmer. Kieran the butcher realizes that his assistant Siobhan is comely, and then he discovers she's fiery as well. Ollie sends off for Dutch skin magazines that the village postmistress won't release to him. The men, and women, find counsel in their movie-loving priest. Will anyone answer the ad?

The Closer You Get

2000

An Everlasting Piece poster
5.9

Colin is a Catholic and George is a poetry-loving Protestant. In Belfast in the 1980s, they could have been enemies, but instead they became business partners. After persuading a mad wig salesman, known as the Scalper, to sell them his leads, the two embark on a series of house calls

An Everlasting Piece

2000

Intermission poster
6.2

A raucous story of the interweaving lives and loves of small-town delinquents, shady cops, pretty good girls and very bad boys. With Irish guts and grit, lives collide, preconceptions shatter and romance is tested to the extreme. An ill-timed and poorly executed couple's break-up sets off a chain of events affecting everyone in town.

Intermission

2003

Wild About Harry poster
6.0

A sleazy chef is forced to face the truth about the man he has become and realizes that he has the chance to begin again.

Wild About Harry

2000

The Blackwater Lightship poster
6.1

A man in the final stages of AIDS is cared for by his sister and mother and grandmother.

The Blackwater Lightship

2004

Sinners poster
7.5

Powerful drama set in 1960s Ireland about a young, unmarried mother-to-be whose family sends her to a convent. There, out of sight of society, her work in the laundry provides her with close friendships, which bring hope and relief from daily prayer and penance. (Radio Times)

Sinners

2002

1990s · 11 titles

Circle of Friends poster
6.3

Three girlhood friends now at college share first loves, first kisses and first betrayals. At the center of it all is the best-looking boy on campus. Can a self-conscious dreamer hook the biggest fish in the pond?

Circle of Friends

1995

An Awfully Big Adventure poster
6.5

Liverpool. 1947. Right after World War II, a star struck naive teenage girl joins a shabby theatre troupe in Liverpool. During a winter production of Peter Pan, the play quickly turns into a dark metaphor for youth as she becomes drawn into a web of sexual politics and intrigue and learns about the grown-up world of the theater.

An Awfully Big Adventure

1995

The Snapper poster
6.5

Sharon Curley is a 20-year-old living with her parents and many brothers and sisters in Dublin. When she gets pregnant and refuses to name the father, she becomes the talk of the town.

The Snapper

1993

The Field poster
7.0

"Bull" McCabe's family has farmed a field for generations, sacrificing much in the name of the land. When the widow who owns the field decides to sell it in a public auction, McCabe knows that he must own it. While no local dare bid against him, a wealthy American decides he requires the field to build a highway. "Bull" and his son decide they must try to convince the American to let go of his ambition and return home, but the consequences of their plot prove sinister.

The Field

1990

The Miracle poster
6.0

Two teenagers Jimmy and Rose spend their vacation at the small Irish sea-resort Bray. Out of boredom they observe other people and imagine wild stories about them. One day they observe the blonde Renee, and Jimmy is immediately fascinated by her and even follows her home. She, too, seems to like him, but for a mysterious reason keeps him at a distance.

The Miracle

1991

Titanic Town poster
5.3

Belfast 1972: The politically naive Bernie is trying to bring up a normal family in less than normal surroundings. Her best friend is accidentally shot dead by the IRA, and her neighbours are constantly raided by the army. In this climate of fear she stands up and condemns the murders. Criticising both factions, her call for a ceasefire is interpreted as an attack against the IRA, and as her peace movement takes momentum, she and her family are placed in the frontline.

Titanic Town

1998

Shadow of a Gunman poster
7.0

The first part of O'Casey's "The Dublin Trilogy". Set in 1920, as the War of Independence rages, "Shadow of a Gunman" is the story of two young men, Donal and Seamus who share a flat in Dublin.

Shadow of a Gunman

1995

Hostages poster
6.1

True account of the six men held hostage by religious extremists in Beirut during the Reagan-Bush era.

Hostages

1992

No artwork available
8.5

The lives of seven friends who share a bus from their village to Dublin every day get complicated as the reasons for their discontent are revealed.

The Lilac Bus

1990

Fatal Inheritance poster
6.5

Jack Carnegie is an American 'heir-hunter', whose job it is to trace unknown family members who should rightly inherit unassigned fortunes. He arrives in Ireland to find the sole heir to a fortune.

Fatal Inheritance

1991

Crossroads of Laredo poster
3.5

Tex is a gunslinger who murders a cowboy and steals his money. Lem is an honest man who wants nothing more than to marry Barbara. When Tex marries Barbara and treats her badly, Lem decides to settle the score.

Crossroads of Laredo

1996

Series credits

Silent Witness poster
7.6

A team of exceptional forensic pathologists and scientists investigate heinous crimes and use their skills to catch the people responsible.

Silent Witness

1996

Screen Two poster
7.1

Series of single made-for-television dramas.

Screen Two

1985

Foyle's War poster
7.9

As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.

Foyle's War

2002

Performance poster
6.3

An anthology series of various plays and dramatic performances.

Performance

1991

Scarlett poster
6.6

Scarlett is a 1994 American television miniseries loosely based on Alexandra Ripley's eponymous 1991 book of the same name, a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind' (1936). Filmed across the United States and abroad, the series stars Joanne Whalley and Timothy Dalton. The miniseries was broadcast in four parts on CBS from November 13-17, 1994. Following the death of her sister-in-law Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara sets out to reclaim her doomed romance with Rhett Butler, as it takes her home to Tara to Charleston to Savannah to Ireland, where she learns of her family's roots.

Scarlett

1994

Small Town, Big Story poster
6.7

A Hollywood production rolls into a small Irish town and throws the spotlight on a secret that's been kept hidden since the eve of the Millennium.

Small Town, Big Story

2025

Single-Handed poster
6.8

Single-Handed is an Irish television drama series, first broadcast on RTÉ Television in 2007. Set and filmed in the west of Ireland, it focuses on the life of a member of the Garda Síochána, Sergeant Jack Driscoll. Three two-episode, single-story series aired one each on consecutive nights in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Series Four, consisting of three stories told over six episodes, began in RTÉ One November 2010. The series is partially inspired by garda corruption in County Donegal.

Single-Handed

2007

Takin' Over the Asylum poster
8.4

A salesman starts to run a hospital radio station inside a facility for people with mental heath needs.

Takin' Over the Asylum

1994

Lucan poster
7.1

Belgravia, London, November 7th, 1974. Sandra Rivett, nanny of the aristocratic Lucan family, is found beaten to death. Shortly thereafter, the prime suspect, John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, mysteriously disappears. When the manhunt begins, the subsequent scandal shakes the foundations of the British ruling class like never before.

Lucan

2013

Women on the Verge poster
5.5

The lives of three women in their 30s, as they navigate the challenges of life, love and relationships. Whilst everyone else is settling down, married with kids, and increasingly in control of their lives, Laura, Katie and Alison seem to be moving in the opposite direction.

Women on the Verge

2018

Nature Boy poster
7.3

David Witton is a sullen teenager who feels more at ease with animals than with people. Following the death of his sister, David embarks on a search for the father who deserted him when he was a child.

Nature Boy

2000

Life of Crime poster
6.4

Set against the backdrop of iconic moments in British history, Hayley Atwell stars as an impulsive rookie cop who becomes obsessed with tracking down the killer of a teenage girl.

Life of Crime

2013

No Tears poster
10.0

Based on the hepatitis C scandal that rocked Ireland in the mid-1990s. Two very different women discover that they have been infected with hepatitis C by a contaminated anti-D injection years before. Despite the devastating effects on the women and their families, they unite in a campaign group to take on the health authorities and expose the evasions and lies of the political and bureaucratic establishment.

No Tears

2002

No artwork available
6.0

Damo and Ivor are a comedy duo act from Ireland, composed of two contrasting Dublin stereotypes.

Damo and Ivor

2013