Irish invasion on Netflix as homegrown movies and shows climb up top 10 charts

Stephen Porzio

And there will be another high profile Ireland-set project landing on the streaming service very soon.

Ireland is currently dominating Netflix, with three homegrown movies and shows making the streaming service’s top 10 charts for today (Tuesday, 7 May).

At the time of writing, the Liam Neeson-starring film In the Land of Saints and Sinners – which we at JOE have been calling the ‘Irish Avengers’ – is currently sat in the number two position in Netflix’s movie chart.

Set in ’70s Ireland, it follows Finbar Murphy (Neeson) – a man eager to leave his dark past behind who leads a quiet life in the remote coastal town of Glencolmcille far from the political violence that grips the rest of the country.

“But when a menacing crew of terrorists arrive, led by a ruthless woman named Doireann (Kerry Condon), Finbar is drawn into an increasingly vicious game of cat and mouse, forcing him to choose between exposing his secret identity or defending his friends and neighbors,” the plot synopsis reads.

Alongside Oscar-nominees Condon and Neeson, the cast for the film also includes Ciarán Hinds (Belfast), Colm Meaney (The Snapper), Conor MacNeill (Industry), Desmond Eastwood (Normal People), Jack Gleeson (Game of Thrones), Niamh Cusack (Five Minutes of Heaven), Sarah Greene (Bad Sisters) and Seamus O’Hara (the Oscar-winning short An Irish Goodbye).

In terms of the TV chart, meanwhile, Irish gangster drama series Kin is in fourth place – having been added to Netflix last week.

The first season of the hit show was added, which tells the story of the Irish crime family, the Kinsellas (led by Aidan Gillen), as they embark on a gangland war with an international cartel (represented by Ciarán Hinds, again).

Set in Dublin and also starring the likes of Charlie Cox, Clare Dunne, Emmett Scanlan, Sam Keeley and Yasmin Seky, Kin was renewed for a second season which premiered in 2023.

Though over the course of the two seasons the series has racked up a large fan base in Ireland – and recently got a second wind when its second season landed on the BBC – the future of the show remains up in the air.

There is hope that if Kin is a success on Netflix that it will be granted a third batch of episodes.

Also in the TV chart in the number nine spot is Obituary, the Irish dark comedy series that has getting comparisons to hit serial killer drama Dexter.

It stars Siobhan Cullen as Elvira Clancy, a young woman in a small Irish town who takes up a job as an obituarist.

Becoming more obsessed with the morbid, Elvira starts to take matters into her own hands to make the local death notices a bit more interesting.

Michael Smiley (Bad Sisters), Ronan Raftery (Gangs of London) and Danielle Galligan (Kin) also star in Obituary.

And Ireland’s invasion of the streaming platform looks like it is set to continue as Cullen will also be starring in the new Ireland-set Netflix original series Bodkin.

Premiering this week on the service on Thursday 9 May, the darkly comic mystery thriller follows a motley crew of podcasters (Cullen, Robyn Cara and Will Forte) who set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three people in a quaint, coastal Irish town.

Filmed in West Cork, Wicklow and Dublin and executively produced by the Obamas, the show boasts an incredible ensemble cast of Irish talent including but not limited to Chris Walley (The Young Offenders), David Pearse (Grabbers), David Wilmot (Calvary), Fionnula Flanagan (Lost), Pat Shortt (The Banshees of Inisherin) and Pauline McLynn (Father Ted).

You can check out a trailer for Bodkin right here:

On top of all this, Netflix announced on Tuesday that the second season of Netflix’s smash hit dark fantasy series Wednesday has begun production in Ireland.

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