Yahoo Lifestyle Colm Meaney to Receive Irish Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award
Colm Meaney, the Irish actor perhaps best known for playing Miles O’Brien across all seven seasons of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” but with a wealth of other major film and TV credits to his name, is set to be honored with the Irish Academy Award for lifetime achievement.
Presented at the Irish Film & Television Academy (IFTA) awards on Feb. 14, the honor will celebrate a career spanning five decades that has seen Meaney work with some of the world’s most renowned filmmakers and actors.
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“To say I was surprised when I got the news that IFTA wanted to give me this award, would be an understatement. I was truly shocked,” said Meaney. “To be asked to join this long list of very illustrious previous recipients is a huge honour, and I’m thrilled and looking forward to a good night in Dublin.”
Film credits on Meaney’s resume include all three films in Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy in the 1990s: “The Commitments,” “The Snapper” and “The Van,” landing a Golden Globe nomination for “The Snapper”. Since then, other roles have included: “Intermission,” “The Dead,” “The Last of the Mohicans,” “Con Air,” “Layer Cake,” “Under Siege,” “Far and Away,” “Marlowe,” “Tolkien,” “Seberg,” “The Damned United,” “The Banker,” “Die Hard 2,” “Kings,” “The Journey” and “How Harry Became a Tree” (which won him his first IFTA award in 2002). Most recently he starred in “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” opposite Liam Neeson and Kerry Condon and “Bring Them Down” with Barry Keoghan, and will soon be seen in Jim Sheridan’s “Re-creation.”
On the TV side, alongside “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” Meaney appeared as a regular in AMC’s “Hell on Wheels” and was more recently seen in “Gangs of London,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and “The Serpent Queen.”
“Colm is one of Ireland’s most beloved and versatile actors, with a one-of-a-kind warmth and roguish persona and wit that has endeared him to audiences right across the globe,” said IFTA CEO Áine Moriarty. “His illustrious screen and stage career has shown him to be such a skillful and nuanced actor as well as a superbly funny leading man. Despite his international success, Colm has always been an unflinching supporter of home-grown Irish projects and talent coming through. The Irish Academy is honoured to pay tribute to Colm’s achievements, and his remarkable career.”
The 2025 IFTA Nominations will be announced Jan. 14.
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