Colin Sheridan: It's been a long road but Cillian Murphy looks all set for Oscar success

 Cillian Murphy in a scene from 'Oppenheimer'. Picture: Universal Pictures via AP

There’s a plaque upon a wall on Walworth Road, Portobello, Dublin that reads “BARRY FITZGERALD 1888 - 1961. ABBEY THEATRE AND OSCAR WINNING ACTOR WAS BORN IN THIS HOUSE”. 

With all due respect to Wicklow’s most famous adopted son, the Kensington-born Daniel Day-Lewis, Fitzgerald remains the only Irish-born male actor to win an Academy award, claiming the Best Supporting Actor prize for his role in the 1944 musical comedy-drama Going My Way.

As of Tuesday lunchtime, all that looks set to change, as Cork’s Cillian Murphy was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his depiction of J Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s biopic.

It seems a little bizarre that this is Murphy’s first nomination, not necessarily because of the movies he’s made, but because of his status in pop culture consciousness.

If there was an Oscar award for Best Original Man, say, there’d be a strong case he should win every year.

He did not need the Oscar nomination for his portrayal of the conflicted physicist to justify his “ness”, but he got it, and will go into next month's ceremony the odds-on favourite to win. 

Anything but typical

Irish people are not typically comfortable with being favourites for anything, but then Murphy is anything but typical.

His rivals for the marquee prize are stellar, even if the movies they represent will be dwarfed by the gargantuan Oppenheimer; Paul Giamatti in the charming The Holdovers, Bradley Cooper in Maestro, veteran Jeffrey Wright in the literary satire American Fiction, and, finally, the outsider, Colman Domingo in the civil rights drama Rustin. 

Cillian Murphy poses in the press room with the award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama for 'Oppenheimer' at the 81st Golden Globe Awards in January. Picture: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

With the exception of Cooper’s Maestro, most Irish viewers will be largely unfamiliar with the rest. He won’t be complacent, though, our Cillian. Complacency is for weak men. Like you and me.

Murphy attracted Oscar buzz from the moment his name was attached to Christopher Nolan's controversial project, so Tuesday's announcement will likely have come more as a relief than a triumph for Ireland’s favourite son.

His omission, quite frankly, would’ve been a travesty for the arts, and a hate crime against Cork.

If the People's Republic is celebrating, Dublin will lament the absence of Barry Keoghan and Andrew Scott from the shortlists. 

Keoghan’s vehicle — the divisive Saltburn, popular at the less po-faced Golden Globes and Baftas — was ignored completely. 

Scott, on the other hand, should take solace in the fact that many commentators deemed his omission (for his role alongside Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers) a ‘snub’. 

He’s in good company, as fellow snubees include Leonardo DiCaprio, Greta Gerwig, and Margot Robbie. 

Gerwig and Robbie — the brain and beating heart of the billion-dollar, culturally profound meditation on the patriarchy Barbie — should feel particularly aggrieved, especially as Ryan Gosling's Ken nabbed a supporting actor nom (perhaps proving the point of the entire movie).

For those who watched Greta Lee effortlessly glide through the sliding doors conceit of Past Lives, her omission should rankle, also.

Ireland’s Element Pictures — following recent awards-season hits including Room and The Favourite — will once again be at the party with the feminist fantasy Poor Things. 

Yorgos Lanthimos’s fantastical tale of a young woman brought back to life by an eclectic scientist landed multiple nominations, with Dubliner Rob Ryan receiving a nod for Best Cinematography.

All eyes on Murphy

Come the night of March 10, though, all eyes will be on the ocean-eyed Murphy. 

Should he win, he will join O’Sullivan, Brenda Fricker, and Day-Lewis at the top table of Irish acting achievement.

While the relevance of Hollywood recognition has never seemed to bother him, winning a Best Actor Oscar remains the pinnacle of any leading man's artistic life.

Florence Pugh, Emily Blunt, Cillian Murphy, and Robert Downey Jr. arrive at the Governors Awards in January. Picture: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello

Murphy, like Fricker before him, has never given off the impression of a man driven by a need for critical approval — the opposite, if anything — but even his purist sensibilities would likely be softened by the adoration and acclaim such an honour would bestow upon him.

It's been a long, often quiet road for Murphy.

While Colin Farrell — his co-star in the brilliant 2003 Irish cult classic Intermission — burned a hole through the noughties, Murphy’s ascent was more gradual. 

His twist as the uncompromising Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders brought him the critical acclaim he never needed, but it’s been his creative relationship with director Christopher Nolan — showcased in the likes of Inception, Dunkirk and now Oppenheimer — that's landed him in the conversation of "greatest living actors".

He may not like being the centre of attention, but he better get used to it. If things go according to plan, there’ll be a statuette coming home to Leeside, and a plaque going on a wall in Douglas.