The Department of Film & Screen Media is delighted to announce a special event with the director of the newly released documentary Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story

4 Feb 2025

Please join us for a conversation with the director of the film Sinéad O’Shea and Dr Maureen O’Connor, expert on the life and work of Edna O’Brien.

WHERE AND WHEN:

14:00–15:30 on February 11, in the Film & Screen Media Auditorium, Kane Building Basement [B10.B]

Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story is a stunning portrait of one of the world’s greatest and most charismatic writers, Edna O’Brien. 

O’Brien’s books were banned and burned in her native Ireland, and she lived in London where she had illicit love affairs, hosted star-studded parties, and made and lost a fortune. 

Before her death in July 2024, Edna gave one last filmed interview and shared her diaries with director Sinéad O’Shea. O’Brien’s tale is narrated by Oscar nominated actress Jessie Buckley. Blue Road is a moving and brilliant film that captures the incredible story of a magnificent writer and person…

Sinéad O’Shea is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her new film Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2024, and was the opening film at Doc NYC. It won Best New Irish Film at the Cork International Film Festival and a jury prize at Palm Springs Film Festival. Her previous, Pray for Our Sinners, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2022, and was the most attended documentary in Irish cinemas in 2023. It won the prize for Best Documentary at the Hamptons International Film Festival and was nominated for awards at the Dublin International Film Festival and at the Chicago International Film Festival.

Sinéad’s debut feature documentary, A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot, was nominated for a FACT Award at CPH:DOX 2018, and premiered at British Film Institute London Film Festival. The film was executive produced by Joshua Oppenheimer and André Singer.

Previously, Sinead directed current affairs films for Al Jazeera English, BBC, and Channel 4. She was a profile writer for Publishers Weekly and reported from Ireland for The New York Times. She continues to contribute to The New York Times and The Guardian.

Maureen O’Connor is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English in University College Cork. She is the author of The Female and the Species: The Animal in Irish Women’s Writing (2010) and of Edna O’Brien and the Art of Fiction (2021). Among her co-edited publications are, with Kathryn Laing and Sinéad Mooney, Edna O’Brien: New Critical Perspectives (2006), and, with Lisa Colletta, Wild Colonial Girl: Essays on Edna O’Brien (2006). Maureen is currently contributing the Edna O’Brien entry to the online publication, The Literary Encyclopaedia: Exploring Literature, History and Culture.