David Ireland (born 1976) is a

Northern Irish The people of Northern Ireland are all people born in Northern Ireland and having, at the time of their birth, at least one parent who is a British Nationality Law, British citizen, an Irish nationality law, Irish citizen or is otherwis ...

-born playwright and actor, known for his award-winning plays ''Cyprus Avenue'' and ''Ulster American''.

Early life and education

Ireland was born in

Sandy Row Sandy Row () is an inner city area of south Belfast, Northern Ireland, which is predominantly Protestant working-class. In 2018, the population was estimated to be around 4,000. It is a staunchly loyalist area and heartland of the paramilitary U ...

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

, but grew up in

Ballybeen Ballybeen (), also known as Ballybeen Housing Estate, is the second-biggest housing estate in Northern Ireland. It is in the village of Dundonald, County Down, Dundonald, on the outskirts of east Belfast. It lies within the townlands of Ballybeen ...

Dundonald, County Down Dundonald () is a large settlement and civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies east of Belfast and is a suburb of the city. It is home to Moat Park, the Ulster Hospital, and Dundonald International Ice Bowl. History The plac ...

. His father was a heavy drinker. Ireland attended Brooklands Primary School. He then attended the

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today ...

, before receiving training at the

Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (), formerly the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama () is a conservatoire of dance, drama, music, production, and film in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a member of the Federation of Drama Schools. Founde ...

Career

In 2009, Ireland's ''What The Animals Say'' was produced by Òran Mór in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. In 2010, ''Everything Between Us'', first produced by Solas Nua and Tinderbox Theatre Company, was performed in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, and

Washington, D.C Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

. It won the Stewart Parker Trust BBC Radio Drama Award, and the

Meyer-Whitworth Award The Meyer-Whitworth Award was a literary prize established in 1991 and awarded from 1992 until 2011 to new British playwrights to help them further their careers. The £10,000 prize, one of the largest annual prizes for play writing in the UK, was ...

for Best New Play. In 2016, Ireland's ''Cyprus Avenue'' premiered at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a West End theatre#London's non-commercial theatres, non-commercial theatre in Sloane Square, London, England, opene ...

. It was awarded the 2017 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play, and the 2017

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

for Drama. The play then transferred to

The Public Theater The Public Theater is an arts organization in New York City. Founded by Joseph Papp, The Public Theater was originally the Shakespeare Workshop in 1954; its mission was to support emerging playwrights and performers.Epstein, Helen. ''Joe Papp: ...

, New York City, the

Abbey Theatre, Dublin The Abbey Theatre (), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland () is a theatre in Dublin, Ireland. First opening to the public on 27 December 1904, and moved from its original building after a fire in 1951, it has remained active to the p ...

, and the Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast. It returned to the Royal Court in February 2019 for a four-week run, and had its

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

debut in May 2019 at Sydney's Old Fitzroy Theatre. The Abbey Theatre performance with

Stephen Rea Stephen Rea ( ; born October 31, 1946) is an Irish actor. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he began his career as a member of Dublin's Focus Theatre, and played many roles on the stage and on Irish television. He came to the attention of inte ...

was ranked by ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' writers as the 27th best theatre show since 2000. In 2018, Ireland's

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual arts, visual, literature, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently Nonfiction, non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ...

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

''Ulster American'' was performed by

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded as The Traverse Theatre Club in 1962 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes, Richard Demarco, Terry Lane, Andrew Muir, John Martin and Sheila Colvin. The Traverse Th ...

as part of their

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

season. It was awarded the

Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award The Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award is a theater prize given annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. History The Award has presented by the Carol Tambor Theatrical Foundation since 2004. In a formal agreement with the Fringe Society, it ...

for that year. In 2019, it was nominated for Best Female Performance, Best New Play, Best Production, and Best Male Performance at the

Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland The Critics' Awards for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) are an annual event awarding performances "substantially produced in Scotland, or developed, rehearsed and premiered in Scotland". Awards ceremony The ceremony is itinerant in terms of location, sw ...

, winning the first three. It had its London debut at

Riverside Studios Riverside Studios is an arts centre on the north bank of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. The venue plays host to contemporary performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production. Having opened in May 1976, th ...

in 2023 in a production starring

Woody Harrelson Woodrow Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American actor. He first became known for his role as bartender Woody Boyd on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1985–1993), for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

Andy Serkis Andrew Clement Serkis (born 20 April 1964) is an English actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his motion capture roles comprising motion capture acting, animation and voice work for computer-generated characters such as Gollum in ''The Lo ...

and

Louisa Harland Louisa Clare Harland (born ) is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles as Orla McCool in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Derry Girls'' (2018–2022) and the titular character of the Disney+ series ''Renegade Nell'' (2024). Early life Brought up i ...

. In 2025, a production of ''Ulster American'' by The Balally Players placed second overall in the national RTÉ All-Ireland Drama Festival Circuit competition and received the Abbey Award. The production later transferred to the Abbey Theatre’s Peacock Stage, where it played four sold-out performances in May 2025. Ireland had played the role of the character Claire’s father in 2018's ''

Derry Girls ''Derry Girls'' is a British-produced period teen sitcom set in Derry, Northern Ireland, created and written by Lisa McGee, that premiered on 4 January 2018 on Channel 4 and ran for three series. The channel's most successful comedy since '' ...

''. He wrote the upcoming 2023

Sky Atlantic Sky Atlantic is a British pay television channel owned by Sky Group, Sky Group Limited that launched in 2011 and broadcasts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The channel airs original British-produced dramas like ''Fortitude (TV series), F ...

series ''

The Lovers The Lovers (VI) is the sixth trump (card games), trump or Major Arcana card in most traditional Tarot decks. It is used in Tarot card games, game playing as well as in Tarot reading, divination. Interpretation According to A. E. Waite's 191 ...

''.

Personal life

Ireland met his wife Jennifer while he was acting in Glasgow, where they now live with their children Ada and Elijah.

Selected works

*''What The Animals Say'' (Òran Mór, Glasgow, 2009) *''Everything Between Us'' (Tinderbox Theatre Company, 2010) *''Summertime'' (Tinderbox Theatre Company, 2013) *''Can't Forget About You'' (

Lyric Theatre, Belfast The Lyric Theatre, or simply The Lyric, is the principal, full-time producing theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In January 2023 it won The Stage's Theatre of the Year award in recognition of "its programme...as well as for its online festiva ...

, 2013) *''Cyprus Avenue'' (

, 2016) *''The End of Hope'' (

Soho Theatre Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...

, 2017) *''Ulster American'' (

, 2018) *''Yes So I Said Yes'' (

Finborough Theatre The Finborough Theatre is a fifty-seat theatre in the West Brompton area of London (part of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea) under artistic director Neil McPherson. The theatre presents new British writing, as well as UK and world p ...

, 2021)

Selected awards

*2017 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play – ''Cyprus Avenue'' *2017

for Drama – ''Cyprus Avenue'' *2018

– ''Ulster American'' *2019

for Best Female Performance, Best New Play, and Best Production – ''Ulster American''

Selected filmography

*''

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

'' (2 episodes, 2014). As Finlay Caulfield - S2 Eps. 5 & 6 *''

Still Game ''Still Game'' is a Scotland, Scottish sitcom produced by Effingee Productions, The Comedy Unit and BBC Scotland. It was created by Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, who played the lead characters, Jack Jarvis (Still Game character), Jack Jarvis, ...

'' (1 episode, 2016) *''

'' (3 episodes, 2018-2022)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland, David 1976 births Living people Alumni of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Male dramatists and playwrights from Northern Ireland Writers from Belfast People educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution