Writer

Colin Murphy

Selected credits

  • Ransom '79John Kelleher Media
  • The United States vs Ulysses Once Off Productions/ Pavilion Theatre
  • The Asylum WorkshopTU Dublin/ Grangegorman Histories
  • A Day in MayPat Moylan Productions/ Pavilion Theatre
  • The TreatyFishamble/Irish Embassy London
  • Haughey : GregoryFishamble/Abbey Theatre
  • The Guarantee / The BailoutJohn Kelleher Media/Virgin Media TV
  • Trial of the CenturyTreasure Entertainment/TV3
  • BonfireFine Point Films
  • Leave to RemainTreasure Entertainment/RTÉ

About

Colin Murphy is a writer for stage and screen.  He is also a celebrated journalist and documentary maker.

His latest project, the feature documentary Ransom ’79, with the late Charlie Bird, opened the Fast Net Film Festival in 2024 to great critical acclaim.

Further screen writing credits include State of Flux (Loosehorse), Bonfire (Fine Point Films),  Trial of the Century, a landmark historical drama for TV3/Treasure Entertainment and Leave To Remaina film for RTÉ/Treasure Entertainment and winner of RTÉ’s Storyland drama competition.

Recent plays include The United States vs Ulysses (The Pavilion Theatre/Once Off Productions), The Asylum Workshop (TU Dublin/ Grangegorman Histories), A Day in May (The Pavilion Theatre/ Once Off Productions), based on the book by Charlie Bird, The Treaty (Fishamble/Irish Embassy, London) and Miasma (Anu). He has a long association with Fishamble, the new play company, which has commissioned his many political dramas.  Haughey / Gregory opened at the Peacock Theatre in 2018 and toured Ireland.  Inside the GPO was written and performed as part of the 1916 centenary of the Easter Rising. Guaranteed! and Bailed Out!  produced by Fishamble, were subsequently adapted for screen as The Guarantee  which was nominated for an IFTA and The Bailout.  Both were broadcast by TV3/Virgin Media TV.

Featured work

Ransom 79

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

The United States vs Ulysses

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

‘Colin Murphy’s script cleverly knits together the court case and its build-up, the human stories surrounding it’

‘Murphy’s courtroom drama is cleverly structured, drawing on documentation and commentary but also imagination’
★★★★ The Irish Times

The Asylum Workshop

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.

A Day in May

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

The Treaty

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

United States versus One Book Called Ulysses

The Pavilion Theatre, Dun Laoghaire/ Once Off Productions/ RTÉ Drama on One
Written by Colin Murphy
Directed by Conall Morrison

Haughey/Gregory

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

The Guarantee

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  ****

The Bailout

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.

Leave To Remain

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.

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