12th June 2025
Buy Now
Sinéad O’Shea’s documentary is remarkable for its consideration of an extraordinary life
Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story
Thursday 12 June | 7.15pm (Doors 7pm)
Cost £5 | Duration 1hr 40mins
This event is in our auditorium with unreserved tiered seating
Emerging from rural Ireland, Edna O’Brien broke multiple taboos with her sexually provocative literature and equally adventurous love life. Here, she opens up about her past with additional perspectives offered by Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosely, and others.
Director: Sinéad O'Shea
Featuring: Edna O'Brien, Jessie Buckley, Gabriel Byrne
The Country Girls was released in Ireland in 1960, when the Catholic Church were deeply entrenched in Irish life and women’s secondary place to men was enshrined in the constitution. Into this suffocating place breezed O’Brien, defiant, glamorous, sexy, a new kind of Irishwoman and, most crucially, a new kind of novelist.
NICOLE FLATTERY SIGHT & SOUND
The glitzier details of Irish author Edna O’Brien’s life are given more space than her work in Sinéad O’Shea’s new documentary. But with anecdotes like these, how could you resist?
NICOLE FLATTERY SIGHT & SOUND
This rigorously researched film has much to say about the writing. Contrasting voices such as the reliably lyrical Doireann Ní Ghríofa and the characteristically wry Anne Enright turn up to offer their wisdom. But, as you might expect with a study of such a figure, Blue Road is more remarkable for its consideration of how an extraordinary life was lived. THE IRISH TIMES
This screening is a part of Film Hub NI’s Collective initiative, which brings the best of independent cinema to audiences across NI, in collaboration with Docs Ireland. Docs Ireland takes place from 24th-29th June 2025. For more info see www.filmhubni.org / www.docsireland.ie
