Birdy Sweeney

Acting

Birdy Sweeney

Born 1931-06-14

Birdy Sweeney was an Irish actor best remembered for his regular role in TV drama Ballykissangel. His name came from his uncanny ability to mimic birdsong.

Acting credits

The Crying Game poster
6.8

Irish Republican Army member Fergus forms an unexpected bond with Jody, a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude and Maguire. Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil, in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.

The Crying Game

1992

Space Truckers poster
5.5

John Canyon is one of the last independent space transport entrepreneurs. Rough times force him to carry suspicious cargo to Earth without questions being asked. During the flight the cargo turns out to be a multitude of unstoppable killer robots.

Space Truckers

1996

Angela's Ashes poster
7.3

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.

Angela's Ashes

1999

The Butcher Boy poster
6.8

Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.

The Butcher Boy

1998

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

Downtime poster
7.0

Ex-police psychologist Rob has plenty of problems of his own. Having retired through ill health, he is quite aware that he is not the best person to talk down suicidal single mother Chrissy when she threatens to throw herself off a Newcastle tower block. Rob is, however, the only person available, so he sets about helping Chrissy to overcome her fears, unexpectedly confronting several of his personal demons along the way.

Downtime

1997

Naming the Names poster
NR

Finn's story seems to begin when Henry Kirk comes into the bookshop where she works. But it goes back a lot further than that...

Naming the Names

1987

Divorcing Jack poster
5.9

He's Irish, he's ageing, he drinks, is a touch cynical and when he has time writes a newspaper column. On the eve of the country's first election as an independent state, Dan Starkey's life is about to change after he finds the young woman he has just made love to dead and his only ally is a nun

Divorcing Jack

1998

The Nephew poster
5.6

Twenty years ago, Tony Egan's sister went to America. Nobody ever heard of her again. But now, the message of her death arrives in her town of birth. Only days later, her only son Chad arrives, too. Obviously, his mother took a black husband. Soon, Chad falls for Aislin, who has a bit of a crush on him too. But there is an old conflict going on between her father and Chad's uncle. This conflict resurfaces and begins to draw circles, wider and wider.

The Nephew

1998

No artwork available
10.0

Professor Broderick, a famous professor of Psychology, returns to his house by Belfast Lough to discover a woman waiting for him.

A Woman Calling

1984

The End of the World Man poster
5.5

When some Belfast children find out that city planners intend to "develop" a wooded area called the Glen that the girls use as a retreat from the pressures of city life, they decide to fight back - but in their own way.

The End of the World Man

1986

Reefer and the Model poster
5.4

Comerford’s signature sharp realism infuses this drama about Reefer, an ex-IRA man who picks up hitch-hiker Teresa, a pregnant woman trying to overcome a drug addiction. They head to the trawler where he lives with friends Spider and Badger, that operates between Galway and the Aran Islands. The makeshift family are forced to turn to crime to make a living.

Reefer and the Model

1988

The Poorhouse Revisited poster
NR

In the time of Ireland's Great Famine, an elderly gravedigger revisits a traumatic event through the decaying visions of his fragmented dreams.

The Poorhouse Revisited

2011

No artwork available
10.0

Journey to Knock humourously follows three disabled men on their pilgrimage from the North of England to Knock shrine in Co. Mayo.

Journey to Knock

1991

The Cry poster
7.0

Ulster 1959. A young journalist visiting his quiet hometown is awakened by a scream in the night. He catches sight of a youth being beaten up and dragged away. When he investigates, witnesses seem to melt away, and life-long friends reveal a sinister indifference. Or is it fear?

The Cry

1984

Arise and Go Now poster
NR

Exploding poets, randy bishops and bungling IRA hoodlums are causing havoc in a small town in Northern Ireland. Kevin, an IRA recruit, and Father Dade, the local priest, try to drive some sanity into their world

Arise and Go Now

1991

The Temptation of Eileen Hughes poster
9.0

The McAuleys are local celebrities and Eileen Hughes, a young shop assistant, is flattered to be taken under their wing. Then she accepts their invitation to join them for a week's holiday in London ...

The Temptation of Eileen Hughes

1988