'Limerick is a very diverse place now': Ruth Negga on her home county
Ruth Negga is ambassador for Catalyst International Film Festival in Limerick. Picture: Olena Oleksienko/ilovelimerick
On receiving an honorary doctorate in the city where she grew up from the University of Limerick recently, Ruth Negga became emotional as she thanked her family.
The Oscar-nominated actress attended the ceremony with the family who always encouraged her passion for the arts — even as she wondered if childhood shyness would mean she could ever pursue an acting career.
“I was so lucky to receive a doctorate from UL and my family came,” says Negga. “Rhiannon Giddens [musician] was my co-conferee, she is a mixed-race woman from America and she lives in Limerick, and it was so moving, the two of us receiving our doctorates on the same day.
“I remember saying to my family: ‘This is because of you.’ When you create an environment that supports and believes in the dignity of creating and words and language and imagination, that makes something accessible, then you're reached. You believe anything is possible,” she says, adding people in Trinity College, where she studied acting, and the Abbey, where she performed some of her early stage work, fostered that passion.
Negga believes in paying it forward. Born in Ethiopia, the 43-year-old was raised between Addis Ababa, Limerick and London, by her Irish mother Nora (her father was killed in a car crash when Negga was seven).
The actress has long been an ambassador for Limerick’s Catalyst International Film Festival. Founded by Dr Susan Liddy, Catalyst (April 23-25) presents a film programme that prioritises stories and storytellers currently under-represented on screen and behind the camera. It’s now in its seventh year.
“Dr Susan Liddy came to me and said she was setting up this festival in Limerick and not just a film festival, but a festival that is inclusive and has diversity as the headline attraction,” says Negga. “Being a mixed race woman — I'm born in Africa, raised in England and Ireland — I feel that it describes me.
“I thought this is a great opportunity for Ireland to keep up with the modern, evolving world, and address issues that affect all of us. There are women in Ireland, people of colour, there are gay, lesbian, LGBTQ+ communities in Ireland whose voices may have been traditionally marginalised.
“Her aim was to broaden the inclusivity of stories. That just appeals to me because I think there are endless stories to be told — and I think why choose the few? I'll support anything that encourages people who have a compelling narrative to have a supportive terrain where they can explore that.”
Negga is proud the festival has thrived in the city where she grew up, as she first started to imagine the possibility of an acting career. “I spent a lot of my childhood in Limerick. I went to school there. I love the county. It's a very diverse place now. I think it's a brilliant thing that it's magnetising all these cultural celebrations, because it's got a lot to celebrate, and it's got the will to celebrate it.”
Negga feels Ireland is a country that punches above its weight in terms of the arts and celebrating the arts. There is something special, she feels, about how widespread that is. “I think that respect is actually not just in artistic communities, it's throughout the country.”
She believes Irish people are proud of the arts being a calling card, and adds that has taken work and investment. “You see it now — I see multiple productions coming to Ireland to film. Actors want to come to Ireland, to be on the stages of Ireland. We have a reputation internationally, and that takes investment, not just time, but money and foresight. And I think that we're reaping that benefit where other countries who have not seen the value of government investment are not seeing that.”
Negga herself is grateful to have been one of the young emerging storytellers to have experienced that investment. “I wouldn't have been able to afford to pay lots of fees for theatre school. I was just back in Trinity, taking part in a documentary for RTÉ about opening up the archives at the library. I got to see Beckett's personal writings and doodles and Synge’s typewriter. I just had one of the best days of my entire life. I went back to see my old studios where I trained, and I was overwhelmed and overcome by a lot of emotion.”
Yet Negga says she had to overcome sometimes crippling shyness to pursue the career she hoped for, and it was the support of family and peers that helped her on her way. “Stage school was out of the question. I just wasn't able for it. It took a lot of guts for me to go to drama school, to be honest. I knew I wanted to perform, but I needed the confidence. I knew I needed intense training to do that, to build up my confidence in my ability. Not all performers are extroverts, shock horror!”
Negga went on to forge a remarkable career, starring opposite Cillian Murphy in in last year’s Apple TV hit and the widely loved AMC series In 2017, she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for playing Mildred Loving, one of a real-life interracial couple who took on a landmark civil rights case in 1960s America. She will next star in Peter Fellows’ alongside Josh Gad and Jason Isaacs. The period comedy is set during the summer of 1942, as war rages in Europe.
Negga feels many factors — including the development of Troy Studios in Limerick — have fed into a sense of optimism in the Irish screen industry.
“I think it's long-term investment, long-term appreciation of the arts, maybe a more robust confidence in Ireland, in ourselves, that's a great thing. Watching Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal do their thing with the press in their film was really lovely because there was a great confidence and an ease with the focus and spotlight being on them. That was lovely to see a leaning towards the light and the sunshine.”
- Catalyst International Film Festival will host its seventh edition presenting films, panel discussions, workshops and networking events in venues across Limerick city from April 23-25
Shaping the Future in Screenwriting Industry Day: In collaboration with the National Talent Academy for Film and Television, the day includes screenwriter Danny Brocklehurst (Brassic) in conversation with Kerry screenwriter Ailbhe Keogan (Bad Sisters).
Co Limerick-born filmmaker David Gleeson brings his feature, shot in the city’s Royal Cinema, to the big screen.
This film tells of an event that happened in Scotland in May 2021 when a British Home Office dawn raid triggered a spontaneous act of civil resistance.
This shorts film programme features six diverse shorts with an immersive quality.
Last year’s Catalyst Short Documentary Award recipient will be one of the closing films of the festival and champions gender equality, diversity and inclusion in front of and behind the camera.
