Lifetime Achievement Award

Colm Meaney

“I’m really blown away by this. When they called me, I was in shock for a while. It’s an extraordinary list of people who have received this award before me. It’s such a joy to be here in my hometown to receive this.”

Colm Meaney, Recipient of the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award 2025.

Golden Globe & Olivier Award nominee Colm Meaney has maintained an incredible career across five decades as a hugely admired actor both in Ireland and internationally, with a body of work as diverse as it has been entertaining, bringing characters to life on screen from earth to outer space. Since he began studying in the Abbey Theatre School, he has appeared in countless stage productions alongside his exceptional body of film and TV work, making an indelible mark both at home and abroad.

Colm Meaney receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award

Meaney starred in all three films in Roddy Doyle’s Barrytown Trilogy in the 1990s - The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van, winning the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere and receiving a Golden Globe nomination in 1994 for his lead performance in The Snapper.

While continuing to work in Irish productions, he gained global recognition as Miles O’Brien in the Star Trek franchise, and has appeared in Irish and international films such as Intermission, The Dead, The Last of the Mohicans, Con Air, Layer Cake, Under Siege, Far and Away, Marlowe, Tolkien, Seberg, The Damned United, The Banker and Die Hard 2. From 2011-2016, he played the villainous role of railroad magnate Thomas C. Durant in the AMC series Hell on Wheels.

In the past year, Meaney has starred opposite Barry Keoghan in Bring Them Down and opposite Liam Neeson and Kerry Condon in In The Land of Saints and Sinners, as well as a lead performance in The Problem With People. He will soon be seen in Jim Sheridan’s Re-creation alongside Aidan Gillen and Vicky Krieps, and in TV series The Panic and Safe Harbor.