
Birdy Sweeney
Acting
Biography
Birdy Sweeney was an Irish actor best remembered for his regular role in TV drama Ballykissangel. His name came from his uncanny ability to mimic birdsong.
Known For

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats to armed robbery and drug raids to the routine demands of policing this ground-breaking series focuses as much on crime as it does on the personal lives of its characters.
The Bill

A crazy comedy about three rather strange parish priests exiled to Craggy Island, a remote island off the Irish west coast.
Father Ted

A young British priest adjusts to life in a rural Irish community where life revolves around the church and the local pub. Everyone knows everyone else's business, and everyone usually has an opinion on it. While characters come and go, the small-town qualities remain.
Ballykissangel

Scarlett is a 1994 American television miniseries loosely based on Alexandra Ripley's eponymous 1991 book of the same name, a sequel to Margaret Mitchell's 'Gone with the Wind' (1936). Filmed across the United States and abroad, the series stars Joanne Whalley and Timothy Dalton. The miniseries was broadcast in four parts on CBS from November 13-17, 1994. Following the death of her sister-in-law Melanie Wilkes, Scarlett O'Hara sets out to reclaim her doomed romance with Rhett Butler, as it takes her home to Tara to Charleston to Savannah to Ireland, where she learns of her family's roots.
Scarlett

Irish Republican Army member Fergus forms an unexpected bond with Jody, a kidnapped British soldier in his custody, despite the warnings of fellow IRA members Jude and Maguire. Jody makes Fergus promise he'll visit his girlfriend, Dil, in London, and when Fergus flees to the city, he seeks her out. Hounded by his former IRA colleagues, he finds himself increasingly drawn to the enigmatic, and surprising, Dil.
The Crying Game

John Canyon is one of the last independent space transport entrepreneurs. Rough times force him to carry suspicious cargo to Earth without questions being asked. During the flight the cargo turns out to be a multitude of unstoppable killer robots.
Space Truckers

An Irish Catholic family returns to 1930s Limerick after a child's death in America. The unemployed I.R.A. veteran father struggles with poverty, prejudice, and alcoholism as the family endures harsh slum conditions.
Angela's Ashes

The Hanging Gale is a four-episode television serial which first aired on RTÉ One and BBC1 in 1995. The series was a British–Irish co-production, made by Little Bird Films for BBC Northern Ireland in association with RaidiĂł TeilifĂs Éireann, with support from the Irish Film Board. The serial, set in 1846 at the beginning of Ireland's Great Famine, starred the four McGann brothers: Joe McGann, Paul McGann, Mark McGann and Stephen McGann, and was based on an original idea by Joe and Stephen McGann while researching their family's history. The title of the series comes from the term 'hanging gale', the name for a widespread practice in Ireland at the time, where a landlord would allow new tenants a six-month grace period on payment of their rent, with the expectation that the rent owed would be paid when the land's crops were harvested and sold.
The Hanging Gale

Sharon Curley is a 20-year-old living with her parents and many brothers and sisters in Dublin. When she gets pregnant and refuses to name the father, she becomes the talk of the town.
The Snapper
Belfast-set comedy series about best mates and colleagues, Catholic Tommy and protestant Dougy, who own and run the Safe And Sound garage.
Safe And Sound

Twenty years ago, Tony Egan's sister went to America. Nobody ever heard of her again. But now, the message of her death arrives in her town of birth. Only days later, her only son Chad arrives, too. Obviously, his mother took a black husband. Soon, Chad falls for Aislin, who has a bit of a crush on him too. But there is an old conflict going on between her father and Chad's uncle. This conflict resurfaces and begins to draw circles, wider and wider.
The Nephew

In rural County Donegal, Ireland, a pub landlord murders his barman and is then blackmailed by an anonymous 'Bogmailer', leading to a dark, quirky mystery with a charismatic police sergeant investigating.
Murder in Eden

Francie and Joe live the usual playful, fantasy filled childhoods of normal boys. However, with a violent, alcoholic father and a manic depressive, suicidal mother the pressure on Francie to grow up are immense. When Francie's world turns to madness, he tries to counter it with further insanity, with dire consequences.
The Butcher Boy

He's Irish, he's ageing, he drinks, is a touch cynical and when he has time writes a newspaper column. On the eve of the country's first election as an independent state, Dan Starkey's life is about to change after he finds the young woman he has just made love to dead and his only ally is a nun
Divorcing Jack

When some Belfast children find out that city planners intend to "develop" a wooded area called the Glen that the girls use as a retreat from the pressures of city life, they decide to fight back - but in their own way.
The End of the World Man
Journey to Knock humourously follows three disabled men on their pilgrimage from the North of England to Knock shrine in Co. Mayo.
Journey to Knock

Ex-police psychologist Rob has plenty of problems of his own. Having retired through ill health, he is quite aware that he is not the best person to talk down suicidal single mother Chrissy when she threatens to throw herself off a Newcastle tower block. Rob is, however, the only person available, so he sets about helping Chrissy to overcome her fears, unexpectedly confronting several of his personal demons along the way.
Downtime

Exploding poets, randy bishops and bungling IRA hoodlums are causing havoc in a small town in Northern Ireland. Kevin, an IRA recruit, and Father Dade, the local priest, try to drive some sanity into their world
Arise and Go Now

Ulster 1959. A young journalist visiting his quiet hometown is awakened by a scream in the night. He catches sight of a youth being beaten up and dragged away. When he investigates, witnesses seem to melt away, and life-long friends reveal a sinister indifference. Or is it fear?
The Cry
Professor Broderick, a famous professor of Psychology, returns to his house by Belfast Lough to discover a woman waiting for him.