{"id":421129,"date":"2026-05-10T17:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421129\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T17:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T17:45:09","slug":"rte-all-ireland-drama-festival-winners-announced-about-rte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/421129\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 ALL-IRELAND DRAMA FESTIVAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED \u2013 About RT\u00c9"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9 ALL-IRELAND DRAMA FESTIVAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED DURING GALA AWARDS STREAMED LIVE ON RTE.IE\/CULTURE<\/a><\/p>\n

Kilmeen Drama Group\u00a0hailing from Rossmore, Co. Cork Scoops Top Award in 2026 RT\u00c9 All-Ireland Drama Festival<\/p>\n

Kilmeen Drama Group, directed by Denis O\u2019Sullivan, were crowned RT\u00c9 All-Ireland Drama champions for their performance of \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 by Enda Walsh at the Gala Awards ceremony in Athlone\u2019s Radisson Blu Hotel on Saturday May 9th\u00a0as the curtains came down on the 2026 RT\u00c9 All-Ireland Drama Festival. The festival is held under the auspices of the Amateur Drama Council of Ireland (ADCI).\u00a0 The award ceremony was hosted by Nuala Carey and James Patrice\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bridge Drama, directed by Susan Somers, who performed \u2018Things I Know To Be True\u2019 by Andrew Bovell were placed second, while Dalkey Players, directed by Emma Jane Nulty, who performed \u2018Sive\u2019 by John B\u2019 Keane were placed third.<\/p>\n

Mark O\u2019Brien, Executive Director of the Abbey Theatre said that the Abbey was delighted to continue their partnership with the festival. He announced that the winner of the Abbey Award for 2026 was Kilmeen Drama Group who presented \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 by Enda Walsh, and that the Abbey looked forward to hosting the group in the Peacock at the end of May.<\/p>\n

There was great excitement when the results were announced. No strangers to Athlone,\u00a0Kilmeen Drama Group previously won the All-Ireland a total four times, most recently in 2013. As the saying goes \u2018it takes a village\u2019 and many of the cast and crew are 2nd or 3rd generation Kilmeen members. They performed Enda Walsh\u2019s \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 the absurdist, high-energy play that explores the fragility of existence, the nature of memory, and the inevitability of death. Trapped in a small room, two people pass the time by vividly inventing and performing the lives of an imagined town, using storytelling as a means of survival. As the games grow darker, they are forced to confront mortality, authorship, and the unspoken rule that one of them must remain.<\/p>\n

Kilmeen director Denis O\u2019Sullivan took home the award for Best Director. In addition, Niamh Power as \u20182\u2019 won the award for best actress, and Crona McCarty, Kilmeen Drama Group won the award for best stage setting.<\/p>\n

Other award winners included,\u00a0Dermot Byrne, Dalkey Players, who took home the best actor award for his role as Thomasheen Sean Rua in \u2018Sive\u2019. Sin\u00e9ad Rafter, Bridge Drama, received the award for the best actress in a supporting role for her portrayal of Rosie Price in \u2018Things I Know To Be True\u2019 and Pat Sinnott as Michael (Englishman) in \u2018Someone Who\u2019ll Watch Over Me\u2019, Wexford Drama Group. The award for best stage management went to Toni Knowles, \u2018WIT\u2019, Corofin Dramatic Society, and the award for best stage lighting went to Mark Redmond, \u2018Things I Know To Be True\u2019, Bridge Drama. The Drama League of Ireland (DLI) Summer School Scholarship went to Liam Motherway, Brideview Drama Group, who played Young Charlie in \u2018Da\u2019.\u00a0The Adjudicator\u2019s award went to the creative team of Ballally, \u2018Heaven\u2019, for set, lights and sound, Susan McHugh, Kris Mooney & Gary Wall.<\/p>\n

Festival Director, Michael McGlone, remarked on the very high standards at the 2026 festival. \u2018This year\u2019s festival is extra special because thanks to the team in RT\u00c9 our awards ceremony is being live streamed again by RT\u00c9. This will no doubt open a whole new audience to the ceremony and remind everyone that amateur drama is going from strength to strength\u2019.<\/p>\n

Commenting on the winning play \u2018Ballyturk\u2019, this year\u2019s adjudicator Padraic McIntyre stated that playwright Enda Walsh had characterised his plays as being about some sort of love and the need for calm and peace. His plays are about routine. He also declared that he likes his plays to exist in an abstract expressionistic world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Commenting on the performance of the winning play \u2018Ballyturk\u2019, this year\u2019s adjudicator Padraic McIntyre stated that Kilmeen\u2019s director Denis O\u2019Sullivan \u2018understood the work and worked so hard to give us one hell of a night of energy. Overall, Kilmeen Drama Group had achieved a perfectly manic production of Enda Walsh\u2019s hugely demanding play, \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 with two central performances, from the top drawer, squeezing every inch both physically and emotionally out of the script, supported by very strong technical, to give us a roller coaster of an evening, where we realised that you don\u2019t have to completely understand everything!\u2019<\/p>\n

Padraic McIntyre is a native of Bailieboro, Co. Cavan and trained as an actor at The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He has an MA in Theatre Studies from DCU. Padraic is currently Venues Manager at Ramor Arts Centre. Previously he was the Artistic Director of the Livin\u2019 Dred Theatre Company. He has written numerous plays including \u2018The Night Joe Dolan\u2019s Car Broke Down\u2019 which has sold out venues around the country.<\/p>\n

The plays featured in this year\u2019s final included several amateur premieres, four by Irish playwrights including two productions of \u2018Da\u2019 by Hugh Leonard. 2026 is the centenary of his birth. Four of the finalists hail from Wexford while three are urban groups. While Athlone basked in the sun, the festival audiences were entertained every night. They reported that the festival was of a particularly high standard. The Fringe Festival grew, with records applications for the Athlone Short Film Festival. The Fringe programme was extended with several new offerings including the Apr\u00e8s Play which proved very popular with drama lovers.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n

Notes to Editor<\/p>\n

Award Categories<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 Perpetual Trophy to the Overall Winner \u2013 Kilmeen Drama Group who presented \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 by Enda Walsh.<\/p>\n

Best Director \u2013 Denis O\u2019Sullivan, Kilmeen Drama Group<\/p>\n

Best Actor \u2013 Dermot Byrne, Dalkey Players, as Thomasheen Sean Rua in \u2018Sive\u2019 Dalkey Players<\/p>\n

Best Actress \u2013 Niamh Power as Number 2 in \u2018Ballyturk\u2019, Kilmeen Drama Group<\/p>\n

Best Actor in a Supporting Role \u2013 Pat Sinnott as Michael (Englishman) in \u2018Someone Who\u2019ll Watch Over Me\u2019, Wexford Drama Group<\/p>\n

Best Actress in a Supporting Role \u2013 Sin\u00e9ad Rafter as Rosie Price, in \u2018Things I Know To Be True\u2019, Bridge Drama<\/p>\n

Best Stage Management \u2013 Toni Knowles, \u2018WIT\u2019, Corofin Dramatic Society<\/p>\n

Best Stage Lighting \u2013 Mark Redmond, \u2018Things I Know To Be True\u2019, Bridge Drama<\/p>\n

Best Stage Setting \u2013 Crona McCarty, \u2018Ballyturk\u2019, Kilmeen Drama Group<\/p>\n

Adjudicator Award \u2013 Creative team of Balally, \u2018Heaven\u2019, Set, Lights and sound Susan McHugh, Kris Mooney & Gary Wall<\/p>\n

Drama League of Ireland (DLI) Summer School Scholarship \u2013 Liam Motherway, Brideview Drama Group, who played Young Charlie in \u2018Da\u2019 by Hugh Leonard.<\/p>\n

The Abbey Theatre Award went to Kilmeen Drama Group who presented \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 by Enda Walsh<\/p>\n

Finalists<\/p>\n

Balally Players with \u2018Heaven\u2019 by Eugene O`Brien, Wexford Drama Group with \u2018Someone who`ll watch over me\u2019 by Frank McGuinness,
\nKilmeen Drama Group with \u2018Ballyturk\u2019 by Enda Walsh,
\nBunclody Kilmyshall Drama Group with \u2018Da\u2019 by Hugh Leonard,
\nBallycogley Payers with \u2018All my Sons\u2019 by Arthur Miller,
\nDalkey Players with \u2018Sive\u2019 by John B Keane,
\nBrideview Drama Group with \u2018Da\u2019 by Hugh Leonard,
\nBridge Drama Group with \u2018Things I Know to be True\u2019 by Andrew Bovell
\nCorofin Dramatic Society with \u2018Wit\u2019 by Margaret Edson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 ALL-IRELAND DRAMA FESTIVAL WINNERS ANNOUNCED DURING GALA AWARDS STREAMED LIVE ON RTE.IE\/CULTURE Kilmeen Drama Group\u00a0hailing from Rossmore,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-421129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}