Three Films, Five Voices: Irish Stew Wraps the Capital Irish Film Festival

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It’s a wrap for Irish Stew as the podcast-in-residence at the 2026 Solas Nua Capital Irish Film Festival in Metro DC with this episode of five conversations spanning three films: Saipan, Báite, and Conveyance.

The Festival’s Opening Night feature Saipan unspools the drama that played out on that distant island between the manager of the 2002 World Cup-bound Irish football team Mick McCarthy, played by Steve Coogan and its star player Roy Keane acted by Éanna Hardwicke.

Co-director Glenn Leyburn speaks to co-host John Lee about the challenge of dramatizing one of Irish football's most divisive moments: "You want to show both sides of that story and show both men as three-dimensional human beings. We realized how much they wanted the best for their country and the team but just had different ways of going about that. Drama is built from having those shifts and then having shifts within that."

Co-director Lisa Barros D'Sa explained the creative process of her filmmaking partnership with her husband Glenn, saying, "The most important thing is to agree on the voice of the film and what the tone is. Once we lock that in, we know the film that we want to make. And then on set, I work a bit more with the actors. Glenn works a bit more with camera."

Festival regular and Irish football fan Dan Mahoney provides some audience perspective: "I've probably been to this festival seven or eight times. I was in Dublin for the semi-final match in 1990, which was an unbelievable experience. I didn't remember the whole story, but I thought it was a fabulous film," he said.

The following day, John spoke with Eleanor O'Brien, lead actor of Báite, the Irish-language murder mystery and family drama that earned the festival’s fan favorite award.

"It was my first feature film where I was the lead — and challenging for that reason, and also because of the Irish in it. By no means am I a native speaker," she says, adding “It's really nice being there at the start and being able to create a character knowing that the character is with me in mind."

Eleanor shares the unlikely early steps in her young career and towards the end of the conversation with the rising star, you’ll learn the Irish word for handcuffs!

Co-host Martin Nutty closes out the festivities with Gemma Creagh, associate editor of Film Ireland and director of the short film Conveyance, a satirical and spooky look at Ireland’s housing crises, told through the eyes of a young couple trying desperately to find a home.

“They go to see some really dilapidated, horrible places, and then they find this most incredibly gorgeous apartment in Dun Laoghaire overlooking the sea, however, it is not without an undisclosed guest of some ghostly kind,” she says.

Gemma also offers a sweeping account of the Irish film industry's rise, pinpointing a pivotal moment, saying, "Game of Thrones came into Northern Ireland and it was the biggest production that had ever been in Ireland. The impact was huge."

Three films, five voices, and a fitting farewell to a festival that keeps delivering.

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