'It wasn't hard to teach him': Cillian Murphy's Cork secondary school 'pleased and proud' of his Oscar win

The principal of a secondary school attended by actor Cillian Murphy said the Oscar win for best actor was an enormously proud moment not only for his Alma Mater but for Cork city.

David Barry of Presentation Brothers College (PBC) told the Opinion Line on Cork’s 96FM that he was so ‘pleased and proud’ of the 47-year-old actor.

"He is a very talented actor and he has worked so very hard on his craft.

"We are all so delighted for him and for his family on his success. The school is so, so proud of him."

PBC plans to extend an invitation to the Ballintemple native to visit his former school at his earliest convenience.

A portrait of Cillian in his role as Tommy Shelby in “Peaky Blinders” is on display in the school in Mardyke Walk in Cor.

Mr Barry said that none of the teachers in the school were working on site when Cillian was a student in the 1990’s.

"The staff have moved on since then. But definitely (an invite to visit PBC will be issued). Whether he will find a gap in his busy schedule to come to the school - but we certainly will be extending an invitation to Cillian to come and visit the pupils here. We would be delighted if he could make the time."

Meanwhile, a former teacher of Cillian Murphy said it was obvious during his teenage years that he was born to act.

Cillian was taught English by poet William Wall, who said that he was delighted at the big win overnight.

“He has always been a brilliant actor. The world is his oyster.” 

The Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG winning actor was taught English by Mr Wall in PBC. Mr Wall subsequently left the school to focus on his poetry and became Cork’s first Poet Laureate in 2021.The novelist and poet previously told the Neil Prendeville show, on Cork's Red FM, that Cillian was a really good student of English.

“He was just one of those kids who got poetry, got Shakespeare and got novels. It wasn’t hard to teach him. I could also see from the fact that he was a performer — he had the band and they played in the school a couple of times.

You could see that he was a natural for performance so it wasn’t hard to encourage him to go in to the Arts.” The poet said he recently gave a talk about his work in a secondary school in Italy and at the end of the session he was asked if he had really taught Cillian Murphy.

“When I said it was (true) a group of people almost passed out at the thought they were in the presence of somebody who was in the presence of Cillian Murphy!

LEADER

"In school he balanced an anti establishment attitude with a deep interest in culture and the arts. He was sort of a leader in his class in that regard as well. A sort of edgy, not quite an awkward customer but the customer who would come up with the awkward questions.

"His band ‘The Sons of Mr Green Genes’ were actually fantastic. They gave my wife who was a maths teacher in the school a demo tape which she had for several years. Then one day she came back to play the demo tape and one of our sons had taped over the whole thing with summer music for himself. So that was that tape gone.” 

Mr Wall said he knew that Cillian would end up in the creative world.

“He had to you know. When he went in to Law in college I was kind of surprised. Not surprised in that I knew he could be an excellent lawyer as well. I could see him being a performing barrister in the Four Courts in Dublin.

I knew in a way that he would eventually (go in to the Arts). So when ‘Disco Pigs’ came out I was blown away. I knew he had found his metier.” 

He added that Cillian has always been selective about his acting work.

“He picks the scripts he wants to do. He is very careful about that and that is great. He is an actor’s actor.”