IFTA Gala Television Awards Winners Announced

Friday 1st June 2018

The IFTA Gala Television Awards will be broadcast on TG4 on this Saturday 2nd June at 9.25pm.

Highlights of the show include Shay Healy receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award with tributes from Phil Coulter, Vincent Browne, John McColgan, Johnny Logan, Twink and Linda Martin; Red Rock receives Best Soap category for third year; The Young Offenders winning Best Male Performance for Chris Walley, and Best Director for Peter Foott; Derry Girls won Best Comedy and Best Writer for Lisa McGee.

The capacity industry crowd was entertained by Jason Byrne who hosted the Awards Ceremony at the RDS Concert Hall. The evening was hosted by the Irish Film & Television Academy and Chief Executive Áine Moriarty.

Marty Morrissey picked up the Gala TV Presenter of the Year Award; Dancing with the Stars was a popular win for Best Entertainment, as was Gogglebox for Best Reality; TG4XXBeo Won Best Live Event. The Factual Award went to Dermot Bannon and the team at Room to Improve. John Connors spoke from the stage about his IFTA winning documentary Travellers.

Over 600 leading Irish people from entertainment, broadcast and television were in attendance to celebrate the prestigious ceremony, which awarded the highest quality talent with much-coveted IFTA statuettes this evening.

After a jam packed and buzzy red carpet in the sunshine with the stars of Dancing with the Stars, Miriam O’Callaghan, Amanda Byram, Nicky Byrne, Des Bishop, Tommy Tiernan, Lucy Kennedy, Baz Ashmawy, and Sharon Horgan, 23 Academy categories were presented, with winners including Fairy Tale of New York which won the Specialist Factual category; Gogglebox which won Reality for Kite Television. Derry Girls which won Best Comedy and Best Writer for Lisa McGee; Chris Walley who won Best Male Performance for The Young Offenders (collected by Alex Murphy), Sharon Horgan won Best Female Performance for Catastrophe.

Red Rock won the Best Soap Award for the third year; the hugely popular Room to Improve won Best Factual show; Shaw My Astonishing Self won Single Documentary presented in association with BAI. Fir Bolg the popular Irish language comedy/drama starring Sean McGinley won the Best Irish Language category.

BBC Newline won the IFTA news award for their news coverage of the death of former deputy first minister Martin McGuinness and during her acceptance speech Donna Traynor paid tribute to the producer who had passed away last year. RTÉ News and Current Affairs won the best current affairs category for RTÉ Investigates: Nightmare to Let.

It was a great night for Irish Television; celebrating a great year for Irish television. The Irish Academy welcomed professionals to the RDS this evening from both in front of and behind the screen, from actors and directors to producers, writers and leading figures from Ireland’s broadcasters, whose work was celebrated throughout.

In the third Awards ceremony dedicated exclusively to honouring television talent, sponsored by Gala Retail, Shay Healy was awarded with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his incredible body of work spanning over five decades. The presentation of the Lifetime Award to Shay Healy was made by Nicky Byrne and John McColgan.

Guest presenters included Gala TV Presenter of the Year Nominees Miriam O’Callaghan, Hector O and Elaine Crowley; along with Jorgie Porter, Brendan O’Connor, Glenda Gilson, Anna Daly, Jenny Dixon, Aoibhin Garrihy, Amanda Brunker, Deirdre O’Kane, Des Bishop, Patrick Bergin, Jennifer Zamparelli, Amanda Byram, and Micheál Ó Ciarraidh.

Sile Seoige hosted the red carpet for the TG4 show; Apres Match celebrated 20 years presenting the Sports Award (Giles was beaten by Crash and Byrne the documentary about Irish motor racing legend Tommy Byrne). Among those in attendance were John Creedon, Claire Byrne, Keelin Shanley, Caitriona Perry, Donna Traynor, Sharon Ni Bheolaáin, Brendan Courtney, Dermot Bannon, Matt Cooper, Tommy Tiernan, Georgina Ahern, Pippa O’Connor, Brian Ormond, Deirdre O’Kane, Alan Hughes, Alannah Beirne, Bernard Dunne, and Johnny Giles.

The official title Sponsor of the IFTA Gala Television Awards is Gala Retail.

The list of IFTA Gala winners were:

ENTERTAINMENT
Dancing with the Stars (ShinaWil)

COMEDY
Derry Girls (Hat Trick / Channel 4)

FACTUAL
Room to Improve (Coco Television)

DOCUMENTARY SERIES
John Connors: The Travellers (Scratch Films / RTE)

DOCUMENTARY SINGLE
Shaw: My Astonishing Self (Animo TV / RTE)

SOAP / CONTINUING DRAMA
Red Rock (TV3)

FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Sharon Horgan – Catastrophe (Merman & Avalon TV / Channel 4)

MALE PERFORMANCE
Chris Walley, The Young Offenders (Vico Films/ BBC3/RTE)

LIVE EVENT
TG4XX BEO (Gifted Empire/TG4)

REALITY & CONSTRUCTED REALITY
Gogglebox Ireland (Kite Entertainment / TV3)

SPECIALIST FACTUAL
Fairytale of New York (RTE)

SPORTS
Crash and Burn (DotTV/RTE)

CURRENT AFFAIRS
RTE Investigates - Nightmare to Let

NEWS
BBC Newsline

CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE’S - LIVE ACTION
Bernard Dunne's Mythical Heroes (Firebrand/RTE)

ANIMATION –CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLE
Lily’s Driftwood Bay (Sixteen South)

IRISH LANGUAGE
Fir Bolg (Dearg Films / TG4)

DIRECTOR COMEDY/SOAP
Peter Foott, The Young Offenders (Vico Films / BBC3/RTE)

WRITER COMEDY/SOAP
Lisa McGee, Derry Girls (Hat Trick/Channel 4)

DIRECTOR TELEVISION
Garry Keane, Deafening (Mind the Gap / RTE)

CAMERA TELEVISION
Domenico Pontillo, Wild Ireland - the Edge of the World (Crossing the Line / BBC NI/TG4)

EDITING TELEVISION
Bob Caldwell, Pearl Harbor The Heroes Who Fought Back (360 Productions / Discovery)

SOUND TELEVISION
Fiachra O’Hanlon and Killian Fitzgerald Pearl Harbour The Heroes who Fought Back (360 Productions / Discovery)

Photographs syndicated by Darren Kinsella

#IFTAGala18
@ifta
@TG4

IFTA Press Office
press@ifta.ie
www.ifta.ie

press@ifta.ie