Aisling Walsh

Aisling Walsh (born 1958) is an Irish screenwriter and director. Her work has screened at festivals around the world and she has won several accolades, including a BAFTA TV Award for Room at the Top (2012) as well as an Irish Film and Television Award and a Canadian Screen Award for her direction of Maudie (2016). She is known for her "unflinching honest portrayals of a Catholic Irish society". Early life She was born in Dublin, Ireland to Raphael Walsh, a furniture designer and manufacturer from Navan, County Meath. In 1975, when Walsh was 16, she began studies at the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin. She then continued her education at The National Film School in Beaconsfield, England, where one of her main influences was Bill Douglas, a Scottish filmmaker who tutored at the school. She later settled in London. Career In 1985, Walsh wrote and directed her first short film, Hostage. Her feature film directorial debut was Joyriders (1989). She then transitioned into television work throughout the 1990s, including episodes of The Bill (1991–1994), Doctor Finlay (1993), Roughnecks (1995), and Trial & Retribution (1997–2002). In 2003, she wrote and directed her second feature film, Song for a Raggy Boy, which won multiple awards at international film festivals, including Best Film at the Copenhagen International Film Festival. Her third feature, The Daisy Chain, a horror-thriller film, was released in 2008.