merrion street

The Minister for Media, Tourism, Arts, Culture, Sport and the Gaeltacht, Catherine Martin, T.D., has congratulated the cast and crew of ‘Normal People’ which received four Emmy nominations this evening including a nomination for Paul Mescal as ‘Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie’, Lenny Abrahamson for ‘Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special’, Sally Rooney and Alice Birch for ‘Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special’ and Louise Kiely for ‘Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series, Movie or Special’.

Speaking this evening, the Minister said:

I am delighted to hear that the widely acclaimed ‘Normal People’ was nominated for four Emmy awards this evening. I pass on my heartiest congratulations to the nominees and to all the team at Element Pictures. TV Drama is hugely important to the Irish audiovisual sector and a key focus of the Audiovisual Action Plan. Screen Ireland committed significant funding and resources to TV Drama production last year and ‘Normal People’ was the first large scale indigenous project that Screen Ireland supported with this fund. Last week, as part of the jobs stimulus package, I announced an additional €3 million of TV Drama funding to be made available. That additional funding will help encourage Irish TV drama and will – I hope - provide opportunities for many more Irish produced TV dramas of the calibre of ‘Normal People’.

Minister Martin also congratulated Irish actors Andrew Scott, who was nominated for ‘Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series’ for ‘Black Mirror’, and Fiona Shaw who was nominated for ‘Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series’ for ‘Killing Eve’.