Arts and Culture
Domhnall Gleeson, Maura Tierney & Lee Cronin
honored with Oscar Wilde Awards
12 March 2026. The US-Ireland Alliance celebrated its 20th Oscar Wilde Awards honoring Domhnall Gleeson, Maura Tierney, and Lee Cronin on Thursday night at the Ebell of Los Angeles. Academy Awards 2026 nominees, industry executives, musicians, and stars of film and TV gathered to celebrate the myriad contributions of the Irish to film, many of which (e.g. STAR WARS) were facilitated by connections made at this very event.
Former honoree J.J. Abrams, Monica Horan Rosenthal, and Jason Blum were on hand to present awards to the honorees. Comedian Matt Walsh emceed, and Dermot Kennedy and Dave Lofts performed musical sets. The event flowed easily from a brief informal speaking program into musical performances, maintaining the casual “Irish house party” vibe it has offered guests for 20 years in a week typically packed with formality.
In a surprise announcement during the event, guests learned that an anonymous donor has pledged $2 million to the US-Ireland Alliance’s Scholarship program if other donors step forward to give the same amount. The Alliance recently removed the name of former Senator George J. Mitchell from its prestigious scholarship program after new information came to light as part of the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein by the Department of Justice. Trina Vargo, founder of the US-Ireland Alliance said, “We welcome this generous pledge of support and hope it inspires others to invest in the continued success of this important program.”
Emcee Matt Walsh, currently seen in the Vladimir on Netflix, referenced the Irish invasion in film and television: “There’s Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in Hamnet. Plus many Irish actors populating the new Beatles bio-pics. Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo, Saoirse Ronan to play Linda McCartney, and Irish passport holder Joseph Quinn as George Harrison. If they write a screenplay about the Beatles in their 60’s, Bono is sure to be cast.”
In introducing Lee Cronin, producer Jason Blum spoke of his love for Ireland and said that he has shot four movies there in the last 18 months. In praising Lee’s talent as a filmmaker, he noted said that Lee’s horror films are so stomach churning that they could replace GLP-1s. In accepting, Lee, whose film, THE MUMMY, is released in two weeks, said that “the US is a big landmass with a lot of money and Ireland has a lot of stories to tell. Let's put them together and keep doing it.” He spoke of how inspired he was when he met Steven Spielberg at an Oscar Wilde Awards at Bad Robot several years ago and gave him his brand new business card.” He also met actor John Cho at the same event, and he thought he handed him his business card. Lee said: “He looked at me really funny. And then I realized I'd given him the room key to my hotel. Spielberg never called. John Cho never knocked on my door. But it was the start of a Hollywood adventure I'm very proud and very lucky to have.”
In presenting to Domhnall Gleeson, J.J. Abrams, who directed him in three STAR WARS films, spoke of his outrage that Domhnall did not make Vogue Australia’s list of the 70 most famous redheads. He noted that Domhnall is so talented and so famous, that “the only way he could be more famous would be if he’s friends with Taylor Swift, which he is! He added, “I've been blessed in my career to work with a great number of wonderful actors, but none more brilliant, kind, dedicated, caring, funny, compassionate, famous, or ginger.” Domhnall told a funny story about repeatedly flubbing a simple line in STAR WARS. During the lunch break, he recorded the line and played it in a loop while he napped, thinking “that this would make the line enter my subconscious through my dreams.” He said it was worse when he woke up and that in forgetting his line, he “made Adam Driver forget all of his lines, and that made Andy Serkis forget all of his lines….” He joked that “needless to say, when J.J. came back to write and direct his next STAR WARS film, I was unsurprised to learn that my character was killed off pretty early on in the film and did not exit with his dignity intact.”
All the honorees thanked US-Ireland Alliance founder Trina Vargo and congratulated her on the organization’s 20thanniversary of the Oscar Wilde Awards. Domhnall said, “It is cool that this is the 20th anniversary of these awards because on the same week in 2006 that Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan were receiving the first ever Oscar Wilde Awards, that was my first ever week on my first ever acting job in America. I was 22 years old. I was doing a Martin McDonagh play. When I finished that job many months later, I had made friends for life on my first ‘US Ireland Alliance.’”
Monica Horan, who has been a friend of Maura Tierney’s since 1989, praised her friend’s many successful films and tv shows, including E.R., Rescue Me, The Affair, and currently Law and Order. She said that Maura’s “work ethic and sense of commitment spill over into her philanthropic life as well. Along with generously supporting many causes, Maura devotes herself fully to the Campfire Project, working with teams of other artists and art therapists to bring opportunities for cherished belonging through the arts to refugee spaces and displaced populations in Greece, Moldova, Uganda, and at home in New York City.” Tierney, in accepting, said that she was very happy to be representing the American half of the alliance. She said that her grandmother, Nan Costello, traveled from Leitrim to America in 1926 when she was 16 years old. She landed in Boston and found work as a nanny in the neighboring city of Cambridge. “She met and married my grandfather, Bill Tierney, and they moved into the housing project in South Boston. When my grandfather died suddenly in 1948, she was left to raise seven children as a single mother. But she was determined that would not hold them back.” Maura’s father, Sonny, became the first person in his family to graduate college. He entered politics and served on the Boston City Council for 18 years. Her uncle became a judge, another uncle worked at the State House, and her aunt became a supervisor in the Boston Credit Union. She said, “I can only hope a little bit of this resilience, persistence and determination has been passed down to me. She told the story of being 23 years old, living in Los Angeles, and newly pursuing an acting career, when she “found myself, through practically no fault of my own, let's call it, in jail. And I needed bail money to get out.” She called her grandmother, “who didn't have that kind of money, so she went down to the Cork and Bull, a popular bar in South Boston, and asked the owner, Mutt Kelly, for a loan. And with that loan, I got sprung.” When Maura worked and visited many places in Ireland she remembered thinking “how lucky I was to be there. Walking the streets of Dublin, I felt part of a legacy both artistic and personal. I don't think my grandmother would ever have envisioned me performing in Ireland eight decades after she left. And I hope to have the chance to do it again.”
The event continues to play a vital role in strengthening cultural and creative ties between the United States and the island of Ireland. In just the past year, introductions made at previous years’ events led to the filming in Ireland of two films: the upcoming Ed Burns film, FINNEGAN’S FOURSOME and Richard Linklater’s, BLUE MOON.
Guests celebrated another banner year in film, highlighted by Jessie Buckley, who could become the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. A past recipient of the Oscar Wilde Award, Buckley exemplifies the creative excellence Ireland continues to bring to the screen. HAMNET written by Northern Ireland–born author Maggie O’Farrell, alongside director Chloé Zhao, is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Several Oscar nominees were present. Richie Baneham, in contention for his third Oscar for AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH; John Kelly and Andrew Freedman, nominated for Best Animated Short, for RETIREMENT PLAN; and Russell Bowen, nominated for special effects for THE LOST BUS. Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element Pictures are nominated in the Best Picture category as producers of BUGONIA.
Among the those hitting the “green carpet” were Jack Reynor (starring in Lee Cronin’s THE MUMMY); Karl Urban; Jane Seymour, Kevin Ryan and Samantha Mumba, stars of Irish tv series, Harry Wild; Eoin Macken; Jason O’Mara; former Oscar Wilde Award honorees Hylda Queally and Sarah Bolger. Also seen in the room was Chelsea Frei from Gleeson’s show The Paper.
Screen Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen execs Richard Williams, Desiree Finnegan, Andrew Reid, and Steven Davenport were seen talking with film executives about opportunities for production on the island. Caoimhe Archibald, Minister of the Economy for Northern Ireland and Verona Murphy, Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éirean, were representing their respective governments.
New Line Cinema President Richard Brener was there, as was Eoin Egan of Cinespace and a host of execs from Bad Robot, Warner Bros, Amazon, Paramount, Sony, Netflix, Disney, Apple TV+, Mattel Films, AMC Studios, NBC Universal, 20th Century Studios, Wild Atlantic Pictures, Fremantle, Element Pictures, Blumhouse, LuckyChap, and Artists Equity.
Others seen in the room were Greg Daniels, creator of The Office and The Paper; producers Pat Crowley and Jenni Konner; directors Richard Shepard, Ken Wardrop, Jess Varley, and Rich Peppiatt.
Enjoying the performances of Dave Lofts and Dermot Kennedy were Florence Road, an Irish band on the rise; several Disney Music Group and Universal Music Group execs, including & Tom Rowland; Emmet Power; Enda Gallery; Tony Anderson; Sat Bisla, and Northern Ireland singer Brooke.
Once again, the celebration took place at The Ebell of Los Angeles, where guests enjoyed a taste of Ireland through an array of favorites like Wilde Irish Gin’s signature cocktails. The Kensington Caterers’ menu featured mini mugs of hearty Irish stew, classic fish and chips, and a crowd‑favorite mashed potato bar, along with Taytos, Bushmills Whiskey, Guinness, Five Farms Irish Cream, and a selection of fine Irish cheeses and breads. The iconic Beverly Hills Hotel served as the event’s hotel sponsor.
In addition to support from Screen Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen, Send My Bag—a Northern Ireland company celebrating its 20th anniversary—and Invest Northern Ireland joined as major sponsors of the event. For full list of sponsors: https://us-irelandalliance.org/arts_culture/oscar-wilde-event-sponsors
To see the 20 years of honorees: https://oscarwildeawards.com