Best Irish drama series
A curated collection of popular drama series from Ireland.
Rebellion (2016)
Rebellion (2016)
A group of young men and women in Dublin in 1916 are embroiled in a fight for independence during the Easter Rising. The story begins with the outbreak of World War I. As expectations of a short and glorious campaign are dashed, social stability is eroded and Irish nationalism comes to the fore. The tumultuous events that follow are seen through the eyes of a group of friends from Dublin, Belfast and London as they play vital and conflicting roles in the narrative of Ireland's independence.
Resistance (2019)
Resistance (2019)
This follow up to the Rebellion miniseries unfolds at the height of what became known as Ireland's War of Independence, and follows the lives of those caught up in the vicissitudes of history.
Insurrection (1966)
Insurrection (1966)
The events of the Easter Rising, told in the style contemporary news broadcasts and a series of dramatic reconstructions.
1916 Seachtar Dearmadta (2013)
1916 Seachtar Dearmadta (2013)
This series looks at the seven men who were killed in Kilmainham Jail as a result of the 1916 Easter Rising. The people of Ireland have forgotten these men. This is an ambitious series with high standards of information from history to educational to cultural. The seven men are Sean Heuston, Con Colbert, Willie Pearse, Major John McBride, Ned Daly, Michael Mallin and Michael O'Hanrahan.
Falling for a Dancer (1998)
Falling for a Dancer (1998)
Set in rural Ireland in the 1930s, the story begins when 19-year-old Elizabeth has a brief fling with a dashing young actor and falls pregnant. Community pressure forces her to marry a dull middle-aged man, but maybe there is hope on the horizon.
Blood (2018)
Blood (2018)
Cat Hogan returns to West Meath upon her mother's sudden death - she has an accident at home and died (or was it an accident?). Blood is about old secrets, older betrayals, mind games and the lies family tell each other.
The Gone (2023)
The Gone (2023)
It follows Theo Richter, an Irish detective who teams with Kiwi cop Diana Huia to find a young Irish couple vanish from an infamous rural North Island New Zealand town. Amidst the search and a race against time, the pair have to contend with a community’s growing disquiet that the disappearances may be linked to a series of historical murders.
Striking Out (2017)
Striking Out (2017)
When Tara discovers her fiancé and fellow solicitor Eric has been cheating with a colleague, she leaves him and their prestigious law firm to set up her own practice specializing in family and divorce law. Tara's cases will put her in direct conflict with influential families and the legal and political establishment as well as challenging her own personal morals.
Father & Son (2010)
Dead and Buried (2024)
Dead and Buried (2024)
Outside the supermarket with her young son, Cathy encounters Michael - the man convicted of the brutal murder of her brother, 20 years earlier. Ignoring the advice of her best friend, Cathy takes to social media, uncovering the successful career and family life Michael has forged for himself since early release from prison, while she grieved for her brother.
Amber (2014)
Amber (2014)
The disappearance of 14 year old Amber Bailey sets off a two-year search during which her family will go through unimaginable pressures. As the days, months and years progress the mystery deepens, and strange and terrifying clues come to light, raising yet even more questions. The world becomes gripped by the mystery of the missing teen. What happened to Amber?
The Boy That Never Was (2024)
The Boy That Never Was (2024)
When Dillon’s father Harry races back to their tiny apartment to rescue his child, the apartment is in rubble and there is no sign of his son. Three years later, thousands of miles away in Dublin, Harry spots a six-year-old boy in a crowd and is convinced he is Dillon. Desperate to find his son, Harry’s obsession tears apart his marriage to Robin, exposing shameful secrets that lead to the truth of what happened to their son on the night he went missing.
The Clinic (2003)
The Clinic (2003)
The Clinic is a multi award-winning Irish primetime television medical drama series produced by Parallel Film Productions for RTÉ. It debuted on RTÉ One in 2003 to positive reviews and proved to be one of the network's most popular shows. The drama ran for seven seasons between September 2003 to November 2007. The last ever episode aired on RTÉ One on Sunday 15 November 2009 and on YLE1 in Finland on Wednesday 25 November 2009. The complete series of The Clinic was released on DVD in November 2010 by RTÉ.
Smalltown (2016)
Smalltown (2016)
The series tells the story of best friends Conor and Fergus and begins with both young men ready to leave small town Ireland behind in hopes of better fortunes abroad. The story then jumps forward to years later as both men's lives are thrown into turmoil by family drama, resurfacing old wounds and a dramatically changed Ireland.
Kat & Alfie: Redwater (2017)
Kat & Alfie: Redwater (2017)
Kathleen and Alfie Moon arrive in the sleepy Irish village of Redwater on a quest to find Kathleen's long-lost son Luke, who was given up for adoption to an Irish family 32 years ago. EastEnders spin-off series.
The South Westerlies (2020)
The South Westerlies (2020)
Environmental consultant Kate Ryan goes undercover in a small town to quell objections to a wind farm. But Kate has a complicated history with Carrigeen. Soon after arriving with her son, she runs into an ex-friend and an old flame and realizes her task won't be a breeze.
Clean Break (2015)
Clean Break (2015)
Car dealer Frank Mallon (Adam Fergus, Being Erica) 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.
The Hanging Gale (1995)
The Hanging Gale (1995)
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.
Rapt (2015)
Rapt (2015)
Rapt is a sci-fi drama set in a Dublin where, in a single instant, everyone has vanished. Everyone, that is, but paramedic and single mum Ange Smith, who finds herself alone in an empty world and desperate to find her way home to her baby daughter. Except the world isn't as empty as she might have thought - strange and dangerous forces are on the prowl.
Ella's Life (2023)
Strumpet City (1980)
Strumpet City (1980)
Covering the years between 1907 and 1914, Strumpet City follows several characters through the nightmare years of the "Dublin Lockout," when the Catholic Church sided with the industrialists to smash Irish labor's first substantive steps towards unionizing. Using the real-life labor organizer Jim Larkin (Peter O'Toole) as the dramatic lynchpin for the various stories, Strumpet City juggles several storylines to give an overall view of the terrible poverty and misery that afflicted the working poor of Dublin. The central story revolves around Mary (Angela Harding), a young domestic who comes to work for the wealthy, oblivious Bradshaws (Edward Byrne and Daphne Carroll). Once Mary meets handsome, kind foundry worker "Fitz" Fitzpatrick (Bryan Murray), she immediately falls in love, and the couple make plans to save enough money to eventually marry. Mary, distressed at the way the Bradshaws shuttle off their devoted housekeeper Miss Gilchrist (Mairin D. O'Sullivan) to the poor house when she can no longer work, decides to leave the insensitive Bradshaw household and marry Fitz.Unfortunately, historic events conspire to make the young couple's life one of continued want and anxiety. Fitz's involvement with the union frequently keeps him out of work, when he and his fellow workers go out on strikes. And once he works his way up to being foreman of the foundry, he's suddenly caught between the obligations of his new job (and to his employers), and with his union brothers who expect him to walk out with him. The other main story of Strumpet City involves the difficult path of Father O'Connor (Frank Grimes), a snobbish Catholic priest who, in a misguided attempt to ease his conscience, leaves his wealthy parish to work among Dublin's most wretched tenement houses. Utterly unsuited to work among the poor (for whom he has a barely concealed disgust), Father O'Connor is greeted with open scorn by his superior, Father Giffley (Cyril Cusack), a troubled alcoholic
Bracken (1980)
Bracken (1980)
Bracken is an Irish television soap opera broadcast from 1978 to 1982 on RTÉ One in Ireland. It mainly centred about rural life in and around County Wicklow in the Republic of Ireland. The main stars of the show were Gabriel Byrne and Niall Tóibín. The show was created and written by Wesley Burrowes.The show is chiefly known for being the link between two long standing RTÉ series, in that Gabriel Byrne's character, Pat Barry, had first appeared in The Riordans, towards the end of that show's run. The characters of Dinny and Miley Byrne, played by Joe Lynch and Mick Lally, first appeared on this series, they were later to become the central stars of Glenroe. Each of the three series were created by Wesley Burrowes.
The Price (1985)
The Price (1985)
English computer millionaire Geoffrey Carr and his wife have plans for a country house in Ireland. Irish terrorists have plans for the wealthy couple.
The Year of the French (1982)
The Year of the French (1982)
The Year of the French was a television serial, directed by Michael Garvey and based on the novel by Thomas Flanagan, which was first broadcast in 1982. It was a co-production by the Irish broadcaster RTÉ, the British television company Channel Four and the French broadcaster FR3, now France 3. The first episode was shown on RTÉ television on 18 November 1982. In France the programme was known as L'année des Français and was first broadcast on 23 May 1983.The title refers to the year 1798 when French troops sailed to Ireland to support Irish rebels against the British forces under Lord Cornwallis.To accompany the series Paddy Moloney composed and arranged music which was performed by The Chieftains with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, conducted by Proinnsias O'Duinn, and with Ruairi Somers on bagpipes. The album of this music was released in 1983.
Amongst Women (1998)
Amongst Women (1998)
Based on the novel by John McGahern and set in Ireland in the 1950s, the series tells the story of Moran and his children. Especially the girls find it difficult to get away from the influence of their despotic father and start living their own lives.