Maeve Higgins: For a small fish in a big pond, 'The Quiet Girl' has made quite a splash

Critics cannot praise the Irish film highly enough — but how will it fare at the Oscars?

Catherine Clinch, who plays Cait, in a scene from ‘An Cailín Ciúin’ (‘The Quiet Girl’) which is one of the Oscar hopefuls this weekend.

At the US premiere of An Cailín Ciúin (The Quiet Girl) last week in a packed cinema in midtown Manhattan, I heard a number of sounds I’ve never heard in the city before.

These sounds included a spellbound silence, a collective sigh, and, most striking of all, the Irish language.