Sean McGinley

Acting

Sean McGinley

Born

1956-03-01 (70)

Place of birth

Gaoth Dobhair, Donegal, Ireland

Known for

Acting

Credits

80 titles

Seán McGinley is an Irish film and TV actor. He's appeared in about 80 films and television series.

Known for

Film credits

2020s · 7 titles

The Last Rifleman poster
6.6

A WWII veteran escapes his care home in Northern Ireland and embarks on an arduous but inspirational journey to France to attend the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings, finding the courage to face the ghosts of his past.

The Last Rifleman

2023

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw poster
5.4

A devout community suffering from a plague is torn apart by a beautiful young woman and the forces of witchcraft, black magic, and possession.

The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw

2020

Christmas at Castle Hart poster
6.2

Brooke Bennett goes to Ireland for Christmas to search for her Irish roots. While there, she meets Aiden Hart, Earl of Glaslough. Mistaken for an elite event planner, she’s hired to host his castle’s epic Christmas party.

Christmas at Castle Hart

2021

National Theatre Live: The Brightening Air poster
NR

The family home is more than merely a building. It can be a destination of pilgrimage, an inherited investment, a repository of memory or even magic. And, for brother and sister Stephen and Billie, home is all they have. Mucking along in their decaying farmhouse, they're doing just fine. That is, until the arrival of an ex-clergyman uncle with an unscrupulous plan, a sister-in-law seeking a miracle, and a prodigal brother hell-bent on trouble.

National Theatre Live: The Brightening Air

2025

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

Brendan Gleeson's Farewell to Hughes's poster
NR

In 2021, Hughes’s pub closed its doors for the last time. In January 2022, talented fiddle player, actor, and Hughes regular Brendan Gleeson meets musicians, dancers and singers in and around the pub as they gather one last time to recreate the magic of Hughes’s and to commemorate its invaluable legacy.

Brendan Gleeson's Farewell to Hughes's

2024

Wait for Me poster
8.7

Alison is no girl-next-door. Dragged into a life of crime after arriving in England from Ireland. She works for small time gangster Max, whose fixation with Alison is the only reason she isn’t in prison… or dead. When she meets Sam, a damaged man with a troubled past, he opens her eyes that life can be a beautiful thing if you meet it half way.

Wait for Me

2023

2010s · 4 titles

2000s · 22 titles

Gangs of New York poster
7.3

In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.

Gangs of New York

2002

Closing the Ring poster
6.2

During the 1940s, a group of young men go off to war, leaving behind Ethel Ann, who is in love with one of them, Teddy. In modern-day Belfast, a man named Jimmy endeavors to return a ring found in the wreckage of a crashed plane. He travels to Michigan, where the grown Ethel Ann, who married another man after Teddy was killed in battle, now lives. Ethel Ann must decide whether to go with Jimmy to meet the soldier who last saw Teddy alive.

Closing the Ring

2007

The Wind That Shakes the Barley poster
7.3

In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

2006

Shrooms poster
4.9

A group of American teens comes to Ireland to visit a friend who takes them on a camping trip in search of the local, fabled magic mushrooms. When the psychedelics start taking hold, the panicked friends are attacked by ghostly creatures; but how can they determine whether what they are experiencing is reality or hallucination?

Shrooms

2007

Freeze Frame poster
6.3

Sean Veil is an ultra paranoid murder suspect who takes to filming himself round the clock to provide an alibi, just in case he's ever accused of another crime. Problems arise however when the police do come calling and the one tape that can prove his innocence has mysteriously disappeared.

Freeze Frame

2004

The Claim poster
6.0

A prospector sells his wife and daughter to another gold miner for the rights to a gold mine. Twenty years later, the prospector is a wealthy man who owns much of the old west town named Kingdom Come. But changes are brewing and his past is coming back to haunt him. A surveyor and his crew scouts the town as a location for a new railroad line and a young woman suddenly appears in the town and is evidently the man's daughter.

The Claim

2000

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

The Tiger's Tail poster
5.6

After a chance encounter, a Dubliner is stalked by a murderous facsimile of himself.

The Tiger's Tail

2006

On a Clear Day poster
6.4

After decades of laboring as a Glasgow shipbuilder, Frank Redmond, a no-nonsense 55-year-old working-class man, suddenly finds himself laid off. For the first time in his life, he is without a job or a sense of direction, and he's too proud to ask for guidance. His best mates - rascally Danny, timid Norman and cynical Eddie - are there for him, but Frank still feels desperately alone. An offhand remark from Danny inspires Frank to challenge himself. Already contemplating the state of his relationships with loving wife Joan and all-but-estranged son Rob, Frank is determined to shore up his own self-confidence. He will attempt the near impossible - swimming the English Channel.

On a Clear Day

2005

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film poster
10.0

Follows the "Beckett on Film" project, which produced film adaptations of writer Samuel Beckett's nineteen stage plays. The documentary features excerpts from the "Beckett on Film" versions of "Not I", "Krapp's Last Tape", "Endgame", "What Where", and "Waiting for Godot".

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film

2003

Conspiracy of Silence poster
4.8

When a priest commits suicide and two trainees are expelled from a seminary, a journalist starts to investigate the Vatican’s silence on broken vows of celibacy. A thriller examining the internal conflicts in the modern Catholic church.

Conspiracy of Silence

2003

Man About Dog poster
6.5

Three pedigree chumps learn that every underdog has its day in this freewheeling Irish comedy. In hock to the tune of £50,000 to a Belfast bookie and saddled with a dopey greyhound that wouldn't run if its backside was on fire, the likely lads head south on a road trip in the hope of seeing a man about a dog. Foul-mouthed and funny, Man About Dog is full of great craic.

Man About Dog

2004

Dead Bodies poster
5.6

The return of a vengeful ex-girlfriend sets into motion a series of gruesome events for a hapless Irish bachelor in director Robert Quinn's grim black comedy. Tommy (Andrew Scott) had thought he had seen the last of Jean (Katy Davis) after their recent breakup, but when she returns to stake her claim on Tommy's apartment, the confrontation that ensues makes their previous quarrels look petty by comparison. After leaving the apartment in the head of the fight to cool his head and gather his thoughts, he returns only to find that Jean has died and enlists the aid of his friend Noel (Darren Healy) in ditching the body and ensuring that no one ever finds out what happened.

Dead Bodies

2003

Sixty Six poster
6.6

A boy's Bar Mitzvah looks set to be a disaster when it coincides with the 1966 World Cup Final.

Sixty Six

2006

The Mighty Celt poster
6.3

Donal is a 14-year old who develops a passion for greyhound racing. He works in a kennel, which is owned by Good Joe. Good Joe promises Donal ownership of Donal's favorite greyhound, The Mighty Celt, if the animal wins three races in a row. Meanwhile, Donal's mother, Kate, must adjust her life when O, a man from her past, returns. The political climate of Ireland serves as the backdrop of this story.

The Mighty Celt

2005

Watermelon poster
4.3

A tangled web of deceit pitches three lovers together with the added proposition of a baby.

Watermelon

2003

Black Dog poster
NR

When fourteen- year- old Chris is sent across the city to deliver a tonic to his sick grandfather, his journey becomes a chilling trip of self-discovery as he strays from the path into domain of the Black Dog.

Black Dog

2006

What Where poster
6.2

There are five survivors in a futuristic library. Bam is their supreme dictator, and has the others interrogated and tortured, believing them to have said where. What Bam means is unclear, but he distrusts all.

What Where

2000

48 Angels poster
4.5

Seamus is a 9 year old boy who has been diagnosed with a serious illness. In search of a miracle, he sets off to find God before God comes for him. Inspired by Saint Columcille, Seamus sets out in a small boat without oars or sail.

48 Angels

2006

Clare sa Spéir poster
8.0

A neglected and overworked housewife reaches her record-breaking point. Attempting to break a world record, mother and wife Clare is determined to live in a tree for 32 days. In her absence, her reluctant husband is forced to take on the heavy burden of her domestic duties.

Clare sa Spéir

2001

No artwork available
9.0

An aging criminal, about to pull an armed robbery,reflects on a friend of his: a fellow criminal, who lost his life in a recent robbery attempt,on a woman whom he's been seeing and for whom he has strong feelings and whether or not he should go ahead with the present crime.

Do Armed Robbers Have Love Affairs?

2002

Wild Decembers poster
4.5

The film, based on the novel of the same title by Edna O'Brien, is a dark story about love and land set in County Clare in the West of Ireland.

Wild Decembers

2009

1990s · 21 titles

Braveheart poster
7.9

Enraged at the slaughter of Murron, his new bride and childhood love, Scottish warrior William Wallace slays a platoon of the local English lord's soldiers. This leads the village to revolt and, eventually, the entire country to rise up against English rule.

Braveheart

1995

Michael Collins poster
6.9

Michael Collins plays a crucial role in the establishment of the Irish Free State in the 1920s, but becomes vilified by those hoping to create a completely independent Irish republic.

Michael Collins

1996

The General poster
6.7

The real-life story of Dublin folk hero and criminal Martin Cahill, who pulled off two daring robberies in Ireland with his team, but attracted unwanted attention from the police, the I.R.A., the U.V.F., and members of his own team.

The General

1998

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

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 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

A Further Gesture poster
4.8

Dowd, an IRA prisoner in the H-blocks, is gloomily facing his sentence, until he joins a comrade in a risky escape. Dowd begins a new life in New York, but he might as well be in prison again - until he strikes up a friendship with co-worker Tulio and gets to know his close group of Guatemalan exiles.

A Further Gesture

1997

Simon Magus poster
7.4

Simon is an outcast from his Jewish community because he claims that the devil talks to him and he has the ability to put curses on crops. When Dovid asks the 'Squire' to sell him some land so he can build a railway station, a ruthless businessman from the neighbouring gentile community uses Simon to find out who wants to buy the land so he can 'persuade' him otherwise

Simon Magus

1999

The Hanging Gale poster
NR

In this historical miniseries created for BBC Northern Ireland, four brothers struggle to survive during the Irish potato famine of the 1840s while facing persecution from an agent (Michael Kitchen) of their indifferent English landlord. Looking on in horror as their primary food source dwindles, the Phelan brothers (portrayed by real-life siblings Joe, Mark, Paul and Stephen McGann) are torn between nonviolent protest and bloody revolt.

The Hanging Gale

1995

The Informant poster
6.6

A former Irish Republican Army fighter, Gingy McAnally (Anthony Brophy), is reluctant about being called back into service after serving time in prison. He executes the grisly task but ends up captured by a sympathetic British police lieutenant named Ferris (Cary Elwes). The intimidating Chief Inspector of the Belfast Police (Timothy Dalton) convinces Gingy that his best hope is to become an informant and turn in other IRA operatives. As Gingy's marriage unravels under the stress, he is forced to come to terms with the fact that in this war both sides lose. Three men, three political circles, each fighting for their lives, each with their own agenda in the battle for Northern Ireland.

The Informant

1997

Who Bombed Birmingham? poster
8.5

Docudrama film exploring the efforts of World in Action researchers Ian MacBride and Chris Mullin in proving that the "Birmingham Six" only admitted to the bombing under extreme duress, and that the five IRA members were in fact responsible for the deadly attacks

Who Bombed Birmingham?

1990

Resurrection Man poster
6.2

Belfast, in 1970s. Victor Kelly is a young protestant man who hates the Catholics so much that one night he begins to brutally murder them. A reporter soon tries to uncover the murder and obtained prestige for himself, while Victor sinks deeper into madness.

Resurrection Man

1998

The Disappearance of Finbar poster
6.9

A dissatisfied teen disappears from his small town, leaving friends to wonder about his whereabouts.

The Disappearance of Finbar

1997

No artwork available
NR

MI5 operative Neil is asked to monitor one of his former SAS colleagues, Jim Caine, a suspect in a safe deposit box robbery.

Circles of Deceit: Dark Secret

1995

Trojan Eddie poster
5.3

Trojan Eddie sells stolen goods for John Power, aging godfather of a local network of Irish gypsies, known as "travelers." Having done time rather than inform on his partner in a failed burglary, Eddie now struggles to raise his two daughters alone. Power falls for and marries traveler girl Kathleen, but when she runs off with Power's nephew Dermot — and takes the $11,000 dowry with her — Eddie must track the couple down.

Trojan Eddie

1996

Fools of Fortune poster
6.5

A Protestant Irish family is caught up in a conflict between Irish Republicans and the British army.

Fools of Fortune

1990

Rik Mayall Presents: Dirty Old Town poster
8.0

A tramp called Raymond finds his life changes radically when he gets his hands on a sought-after film script.

Rik Mayall Presents: Dirty Old Town

1995

Family poster
8.0

This four-part made-for-TV drama focuses up close on a Dublin couple with four children. Charlo is a hustler, a head-first footballer, a thief, abusive. Paula drinks, objects to Charlie's thievery and adultery without the will to chuck him out. John Paul worships his father who's initiating him into the world of beer and football but recoils at Charlo's treatment of mum; asthma and misbehavior at school follow. Daughter Nicola is a young woman, starting work in a garment factory. When Charlo begins to stare at her, she's frightened and Paula's furious.

Family

1994

Bogwoman poster
7.0

Bogwoman charts the experiences of a woman who moves to the city from Donegal in 1958. Down the years she copes with various personal and familiy pressures against the background of the emerging civil unrest and the redeployment of British troops into the area.

Bogwoman

1997

Lipservice poster
10.0

A look at exam day in a modern Irish school, where students try to pass their oral Irish language exams, even though they have little knowledge and less affection for the subject.

Lipservice

1999

No artwork available
NR

The relationship between a father and son is taken to the limit when the workmen at the family firm initiate the boy into his new job.

Initiation

1996

Series credits

Midsomer Murders poster
7.5

The peacefulness of the Midsomer community is shattered by violent crimes, suspects are placed under suspicion, and it is up to a veteran DCI and his young sergeant to calmly and diligently eliminate the innocent and ruthlessly pursue the guilty.

Midsomer Murders

1997

Shetland poster
7.5

Created from the novels by award winning crime writer Ann Cleeves, Shetland follows DI Jimmy Perez and his team as they investigate crime within the close knit island community. In this isolated and sometimes inhospitable environment, the team have to rely on a uniquely resourceful style of policing.

Shetland

2013

Minder poster
7.2

Roguish comedy drama following the misadventures of small-time crook Arthur Daley.

Minder

1979

Waking the Dead poster
7.2

A detective team apply new techniques to old crimes as they solve cold cases.

Waking the Dead

2001

Lewis poster
7.6

Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them.

Lewis

2007

The Alienist poster
7.5

New York, 1896. Police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt brings together criminal psychologist Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, newspaper illustrator John Moore and secretary Sara Howard to investigate several murders of male prostitutes.

The Alienist

2018

Republic of Doyle poster
7.0

Jake Doyle and his ex-cop father, Malachy, run a Newfoundland detective agency. Their rugged seaside town never lacks for intriguing cases, and the Doyles don't always land on the right side of the law.

Republic of Doyle

2010

The Vice poster
5.6

The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Unit. Spanning five short series from 1999 and 2003, it follows the London Metropolitan police force's vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and such organised crime are regular occurrences. Most episodes end where the main villain is caught but often not in a 'naturally' concluded way expected from other TV dramas, and often ending with more unanswered questions than answered. Leader DI Pat Chappel struggles to manage the balance between his private and professional lives — as do the rest of the team. Working in the seedy underworld leads to a continual dilemma — the tension between the Vice Squad and vice-related crimes runs throughout the series and gives the show a rich viewing experience. The line of the team staying on the right side of the law is often blurred, as almost every member at different points submits briefly or permanently to the dubious temptations, sometimes with drastic consequences.

The Vice

1999

Cold Feet poster
7.8

Follow the lives and loves of a group of thirtysomethings in a heart-warming comic drama as they try to find true love - or at least keep their relationships on track. In this wry and funny look at a generation which is as confused as it is liberated by the choices it faces, will the chill in their feet put out the passion that burns in their hearts?

Cold Feet

1998

Death and Nightingales poster
6.4

Fermanagh, Irish countryside, 1885. On her 23rd birthday, Beth, who lives on a remote farm with Billy Winters, her tyrannical stepfather, whom she can barely stand, prepares to flee from such a suffocating life with the help of the seductive Liam Ward, without being aware that her decision will unearth deeply buried secrets a long time ago.

Death and Nightingales

2018

The Ambassador poster
6.5

The Ambassador is a British television drama series produced by the BBC written by Hugh Costello. The series starred Pauline Collins in the title role as Harriet Smith, the new British ambassador to Ireland and dealt with the personal and professional pressures in Harriet's life, as well as wider political themes. Other notable cast members were Denis Lawson and Peter Egan. Two series were made between 1998 and 1999.

The Ambassador

1998

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

Rik Mayall Presents poster
7.3

Showcasing the talent and versatility of its star, Rik Mayall Presents comprises six episodes of dark humour spread over two series, where he plays such diverse roles as a paranoid TV show host, an uncontrollable liar who pretends to be a gangster and a man on a date who is trapped in a cycle of escalating comic violence!

Rik Mayall Presents

1993

Butterfly poster
6.1

From a young age, 11-year-old, Max, has identified as a girl and as puberty looms, she begins to present increasing signs of gender variance. When Max was eight, her father, Stephen, left the family home. But as Max’s conviction that she’s in the wrong body intensifies, her distress escalates, and Stephen seizes the opportunity to return to live at the family home and support his daughter.

Butterfly

2018

Dangerous Lady poster
4.0

In 1950/60s London, Maura Ryan, the only daughter among seven brothers, becomes increasingly involved in her family’s gangland activities as they seek to control the East End.

Dangerous Lady

1995

Paula poster
6.0

A chemistry teacher's life is turned upside down after a one-night stand with James. They become locked in a dance of destruction. Only one can survive.

Paula

2017

Clean Break poster
4.0

Car dealer Frank Mallon is watching his life fall apart around him. His wife has left, his cars aren't selling, and his teenage daughter is out of control. Desperate for a solution, Frank devises a plan to fix his money problems while also getting revenge on the people who make his life miserable.

Clean Break

2015

The Hanging Gale poster
5.8

The Hanging Gale is a four-episode television serial which first aired on RTÉ One and BBC1 in 1995. The series was a British–Irish co-production, made by Little Bird Films for BBC Northern Ireland in association with Raidió Teilifís Éireann, with support from the Irish Film Board. The serial, set in 1846 at the beginning of Ireland's Great Famine, starred the four McGann brothers: Joe McGann, Paul McGann, Mark McGann and Stephen McGann, and was based on an original idea by Joe and Stephen McGann while researching their family's history. The title of the series comes from the term 'hanging gale', the name for a widespread practice in Ireland at the time, where a landlord would allow new tenants a six-month grace period on payment of their rent, with the expectation that the rent owed would be paid when the land's crops were harvested and sold.

The Hanging Gale

1995

Family poster
8.0

The Spencer family live in a working class estate in Dublin.

Family

1994

No artwork available
7.0

Belfast-set comedy series about best mates and colleagues, Catholic Tommy and protestant Dougy, who own and run the Safe And Sound garage.

Safe And Sound

1996

No artwork available
NR

TV series about a GAA club in a fictional Irish small town. The team is hoping to finally win the country championship, a title which has eluded them so far.

On Home Ground

2001

No artwork available
9.0

DDU is a serial police drama that was first aired on RTÉ in 1997 as "Making the Cut" and ran for 8 episodes. It starred Sean McGinley.

DDU: District Detective Unit

1999

Behind the camera