Famous English actress Judi Dench recently revealed how proud she was of her Irish roots at an Irish award ceremony.
At the acclaimed Irish Film & Television Academy Awards (IFTAs) recently, Dame Judi Dench was honoured with the IFTA Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her fantastic contribution to the world of both film and television.
The 88-year-old actress officially accepted the award at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin last Thursday.
Judi Dench’s Irish roots – an Irish mother and English father
While Judi was raised in York in England, she did spend much of her childhood in Ireland.
Her Irish roots are also strong as her mother, Eleanora, was born in Dublin and her father, Reginald, who was English born, moved to Ireland at the young age of just three years old.
Her parents met at Wesley College, with her father going to study medicine at Trinity College Dublin.
Speaking about visiting Ireland as a child, she said, “My father and mother told me that ‘We’re going on Friday to see a film called Night Boat to Dublin’, and I was terribly excited. But in actual fact, it wasn’t a film at all.
“We went on a night boat to Dun Laoghaire. And I have such a memory of dawn, and coming in and seeing the Sugar Loaf and the Wicklow mountains, and them crying.
“My family was so rooted in Ireland, and so were we as children, knowing all about it. So it is not a surprise to come back and feel unbelievably settled”.
The IFTAS – Irish Film & Television Academy Awards
The Oscar-winning actress was emotional as she accepted her lifetime achievement award from the Irish Film and Television Academy.
She said, “I want to just say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will never forget this evening.
“I don’t know how to say thank you, and it’s been the most glorious evening for me”. She continued, “I hope to have the bit of film at the end to take home. I’m going to watch it a lot, I can tell you”.
Judi Dench – a beloved star
Judi Dench is widely considered to be one of Britain’s greatest actresses. She is admired for her versatile work in many films and television programmes covering a wide variety of genres and starring in theatre roles.
In the past, Judi Dench has starred in many Irish films, such as Belfast (2021) and Philomena (2013).
Judi even won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her excellent performance in Shakespeare in Love in 1999.
She is perhaps best known for her role as M in GoldenEye (1995), which is a role that she continued to play in eight successive James Bond films, with her final appearance being in Spectre (2015).
