Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story to be released next year

Sky has announced the release of Blue Road: The Edna O’Brien Story, a feature film celebrating the life of the Irish literary great, Edna O’Brien, who died last month aged 93. It is set for release in 2025.

This film explores Edna’s identity as one of her generation’s most controversial women, as she undertakes her final camera interview and describes what it is to know there is little time left. She also explores her journey as an artist who refuses categorisation.

It includes never-before-seen excerpts from her personal journals, read aloud by Oscar-nominated actress Jessie Buckley, as well as perspectives offered from Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosley and an array of renowned writers, including Booker Prize winner Anne Enright and poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa.

“It has been the greatest of privileges to collaborate with Edna O'Brien on this film,” Sinéad O’Shea, director, commented. “In her final year, she gave so much time to it. Edna was full of talent, pain, fun, glamour and contradictions, and ultimately, she had one of the most extraordinary lives of any Irish person. I am proud to share Blue Road with an Irish audience.”

JD Buckley, CEO at Sky Ireland, said: “Blue Road is as candid, dark, and enchanting as her enduring writing.”

O’Brien passed away last month, aged 93. President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to the author by saying: “It is with great sorrow that I have heard of the passing of a dear friend of Sabina’s and mine, Edna O’Brien.

"Enda O’Brien has been one of the outstanding writers of modern times, her work has been sought as a model all around the world.

"Edna was a fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed.”

"I remember reading The Country Girls as a young man," Hot Press editor Niall Stokes said, "and feeling that these were the kind of Irish women that I knew: independent, opinionated and strong.”

The feature will be released on Sky Arts and NOW in 2025, and will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as its Irish theatrical release later this year by Breakout Pictures.