Donal Courtney

Donal Courtney graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting and has an MA in Theatre from NUI Maynooth.  Since 1991 Donal has worked as an actor, writer and trainer in Ireland and abroad and is currently a senior tutor with the Gaiety School of Acting . Donal graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 1991 and has since worked in theatre and television in Ireland and abroad. He also holds an MA in Theatre from NUI Maynooth. His theatre work includes: The Man from Clare (Gaiety), The Chastitute (Gaiety), The Importance of being Earnest (Siamsa Tire), The Crazy Wall (Siamsa Tire), Sive (Nationwide Tour), Romeo and Juliet (Nationwide Tour), In High Germany (Bewleys Café Theatre), Homefront (Andrews Lane), and Antigone which toured to ancient arenas in Greece and Austria.  Television work includes: The Tudors (BBC), Maru (TG4), and Fair City (RTE).  He recently appeared in the new Irish short film Cutting Grass alongside John Hannah and new Irish feature, The Gift.  He has directed many plays including the works of Friel, Wilde, Shaw, Bolger and Sophocles. Donal has written six plays: Closing Time, Rumpletstiltskin, Election Night (published by Stinging Fly Press 2008 ), and Gethsemane which was short-listed for the Eamonn Keane Full Length Play Award at 2009 Writers Week.  For whom we deliver was staged at Smock Alley Theatre.  His most recent play, God has no Country, has been published by EdCo as part of the new Junior Cycle English Syllabus. The play which depicts the wartime exploits of Monsignour Hugh O’Flaherty, is currently touring to venues around Ireland and abroad. He has also written for Fair City (RTE).