Colin Murphy is a writer for stage and screen, and a journalist and documentary maker. His latest project, Ransom ’79, a feature documentary made with the late Charlie Bird, opened the Fastnet Film Festival in 2024 to great critical acclaim, with further festivals and a cinema release to follow.
Other screen writing credits include State of Flux (Loosehorse), Bonfire (Fine Point Films), Trial of the Century (TV3/Treasure Entertainment) and Leave To Remain (RTÉ/Treasure Entertainment and winner of RTÉ’s Storyland). Fishamble, the new play company has commissioned many of his political dramas including Haughey / Gregory (AbbeyTheatre/Irish Tour), Inside the GPO (Dublin), Guaranteed! (IFTA nominated) and Bailed Out! The last two were also adapted for screen and broadcast by TV3/Virgin Media as The Guarantee and The Bailout.
His many plays include The United States vs Ulysses and A Day In May based on the book by Charlie Bird (Pavilion Theatre/Once Off Productions), The Asylum Workshop (TU Dublin/ Grangegorman), The Treaty (Fishamble/Irish Embassy, London) and Miasma (Anu Productions).
Production Company: John Kelleher Media
Writers: Charlie Bird, Colin Murphy, Colm Quinn
Director: Colm Quinn
A feature documentary that follows veteran journalist Charlie Bird as he battles the debilitating effects of MND while trying to break one final story in the time he has left.
★★★★ The Irish Examiner
★★★★ Film Ireland Magazine
Pavilion Theatre/ Town Hall, Galway
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Conall Morrison
Set Design by Liam Doona
Costume Design by Catherine Fay
Lighting Design by John Comiskey
Composition & Sound Design by Simon Kenny
TU Dublin
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Peter McDermott
With the final-year Drama students of the TU Dublin Conservatoire
Supported by Grangegorman Histories
A documentary drama by Colin Murphy explores the stories of those who were treated for mental illness in the Grangegorman hospital once known as the: “Lunatic Asylum”.
The play is being produced in conjunction with final-year students of drama performance at TU Dublin Conservatoire.
The Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire/ Pat Moylan Productions
Based on the book by Charlie Bird
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Gerard Stembridge
“A powerful play about a triumph of civil and human rights… A play that everyone in Ireland should have gone to see… Brilliant” Sunday Independent
Fishamble/ Irish Embassy, London
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Conall Morrison
Set and Lighting Design by Paul Keogan
Costume Design by Catherine Fay
Composition and Sound Design by Denis Clohessy
The Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire/ Once Off Productions/ RTÉ Drama on One
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Conall Morrison
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Conall Morrison
Costume Design by Joan O’Clery
Sound Design by Ivan Birthistle and Vincent Doherty
‘Irresistible… a fitting tribute… Thoughtful and thoroughly enjoyable’
★★★★ The Arts Review
funny and fascinating slice of recent political history’
Irish Independent
‘incredible actors…it delights the audience. The wit is razor-sharp… brilliant’
Politics.ie
Produced by John Kelleher Media
supported by BAI, Irish Film Board & TV3
Nominated for Irish Film & Television Award
A feature drama that reconstructs real events culminating in the fateful decision by the Irish State to offer a blanket bank guarantee in September 2008.
“The approach of mixing the factual with the fictional works brilliantly in delivering a spectacle that pulls off the difficult task of being both hugely entertaining and yet remains, a rigorous work.” The Sunday Independent
The Sunday Times ****
Produced by John Kelleher Media
supported by the BAI & TV3
Directors: Conall Morrison & John Comiskey
Cinematographer: John Comiskey
Costume Design: Joan O’Clery
Photo: Declan Conlan as Brian Lenihan in the Bailout.
A two-part drama telling the dramatic story of how the battle to save Ireland’s economic sovereignty was fought, and lost.
RTÉ/Treasure Entertainment
Winner of RTÉ Storyland
Producer: Claire McCaughley
Director: Vincent Gallagher
Cinematographer: Narayan Van Maele
Leave to Remain follows the story of Anwer, a Kurdish refugee attempting to start a new life for himself and his family in Ireland. Anwer enters into direct provision and soon becomes frustrated with the interminable wait for the system to verify his past and reunite him with the family he was forced to leave behind.