Irish short film wins Oscar, but actor gets deported before show begins

CONTROVERSIAL Irish playwright Martin McDonagh celebrated an Oscar triumph in Los Angeles on Sunday night but the star of McDonagh’s short film was deported by US immigration before the ceremony even began.

Ruaidhrí Conroy, who came to fame as a child actor in Into The West, was prevented from attending the Academy Awards ceremony by US immigration, which held him in custody for 22 hours in Los Angeles airport, citing visa irregularities, before putting him back on a plane to London.

It meant Conroy had to give up on his seat in the Kodak Theatre in downtown LA, missing out on seeing McDonagh accept the award for Six Shooter as Best Live Action Short film, but writer-director McDonagh made sure to mention Conroy as he collected his trophy.

Conroy had flown from Dublin via London to LA last week, several days before the Oscar ceremonies, but was stopped at LA by immigration officials who told him that he had breached visa regulations during a previous spell in the US, when he starred on Broadway in McDonagh’s play, The Cripple of Inishmaan, nearly nine years ago.

“I didn’t think anything of it but they started to tell me that I was in serious trouble and asked was I aware of what I had done,” Conroy said yesterday.

He never thought he wouldn’t be allowed to attend the Oscars but, despite the efforts of the Irish embassy in the US and the Irish consulates in LA and San Francisco, he was eventually told that he was being refused entry.

“I don’t think the Oscars impressed them very much. I think it egged them on more to keep me out of the country,” Conroy said.

He was eventually escorted by four armed officers onto a flight back to London, where he arrived at midday last Friday.

It was a sour note on a night of triumph for McDonagh, who was born in Camberwell, London, to Galwegian parents. He spent his summers in Galway as a youth before his parents eventually returned for good, leaving McDonagh and his brother in London.

He left school at 16 and spent five years receiving rejections, including one, famously, from the Abbey Theatre, before his breakthrough came with his play his first play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the first in what was to become the hugely successful Leenane trilogy.

The Beauty Queen earned four Tony awards in 1999.