Pure Mule scoops five accolades at awards show

Controversial television series Pure Mule was the runaway winner at the Irish Film and Television Awards with five accolades.

Tom Murphy, who won the Best Actor in Television award, said the series was a courageous piece of drama.

“Cinema like that hasn’t been done on RTÉ before and the quality of writing you get on Pure Mule is the kind of writing that has been on the cutting edge of theatre for so long.

“It is good to see RTÉ bringing that kind of writing on to people’s TV screens,” he said, on the series which follows the lives of young people in their 20s in rural Ireland.

“That is why I thought it was quite brave.”

The controversial rural drama series also won other awards for actresses Dawn Bradfield and Eileen Walsh.

Their director of Pure Mule, Declan Recks, won in the Best Director of a Television Drama category, and the programme one for Best Sound.

Murphy said: “It was a controversial series in many ways, it did take people a while to kind of catch up with it and get into the characters and story and the whole emotion of it.

“There are lots of deep dangerous stuff in it. Deep dangerous emotional stuff.”

The actors said the award was for the whole cast, who had worked hard to make the series a success.

Braveheart star Sean McGinley, who won the Best Supporting Actor film award for On A Clear Day, said the awards ceremony was a major boost for the Irish industry.

“It is great for film and television industry that we have our own and that we are encouraging, particularly new writers in drama and film and young actors and directors,” he said.

“RTÉ are starting to do a lot of drama and there are a lot of new directors coming through and they are taking a few risks, like Pure Mule and that sort of stuff.

“And this sort of thing puts the spotlight on it, which is good.”