CONOR McGREGOR has expressed his delight at seeing his pal Barry Keoghan take home the Best Supporting Actor award at The Baftas.
Keoghan was one of FOUR representatives from The Banshees of Inisherin to win big at Sunday night’s glitzy ceremony.
AlamyThe 30-year-old played Dominic Kearney in the dark comedy[/caption]
@TheNotoriousMMAMcGregor hailed his latest success on what’s been a remarkable rise to fame[/caption]
@TheNotoriousMMAThe MMA superstar was delighted to hear of Keoghan’s win[/caption]
His co-star Kerry Condon was named Best Supporting Actress while the film itself earned Best British Film honours owing to it being produced by British film production companies despite its cast being all Irish.
Writer-director Martin McDonagh was the recipient of the Best Original Screenplay gong.
And while accepting the Best British film trophy, the London-Irishman joked: “I know every Irish person in the cast and crew are going ‘best what?’”
And upon winning his own award, Keoghan also quipped: “Should have planned this, really.”
He thanked his co-stars along with his family – including his son and late mother.
The Dubliner then issued an inspirational message aimed at children from his hometown saying that they too can one day realise their dreams no matter their background.
Another famous Dub in McGregor was loving it as he took to social media to pass on his congratulations.
He tweeted: “Congrats @BarryKeoghan on winning the Bafta with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson’s Irish film ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’.
“What a story this young man is having! Delighted for you mate, some pup. Onwards to Oscar!”
The pair have been admirers of each others for years with Keoghan having said that he’d love to play The Notorious in a biopic someday.
OTHER IRISH INTEREST
It wasn’t just those involved with Banshees that were the only Irish winners at the Royal Festival Hall in London either.
Northern Irish film ‘An Irish Goodbye’ won Best British Short Film by the duo of Tom Berkeley and Ross White.
But Banshees missed out on the biggest prize of the night as All Quiet on The Western Front was deemed Best Film.
It was a similar story for Irish-language film An Cailín Ciúin which was also pipped to the Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Adapted Screenplay awards by the WWI epic based on the famed 1929 novel.
But Irish special effects specialist Richard Baneham won the Bafta for Special Visual Effects in the latest Avatar flick.