Colin Sheridan: From culture to politics, the 10 Irish names to watch in 2026

From art and politics to film and fashion, these ten Irish presences reflect the questions Ireland is already asking itself

Daryl McCormack attends Netflix's 'Wake Up Dead Man' in New York last month. Picture: Jason Mendez/Getty Images

The business of prediction rarely ages well. Irish public life has a habit of rewarding the unexpected and humbling the apparently inevitable. And yet, every so often, patterns begin to form — not certainties, but currents. 

As Ireland approaches 2026, there is a sense of accumulation rather than rupture. The economy remains outward facing, the cultural confidence hard-won rather than brash, and politics caught between generational impatience and institutional inertia.