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Yvonne McGuinness, left, and Cillian Murphy arrive at the Oscars on Sunday, March 10, 2024 Alamy Stock Photo

Cillian Murphy and wife Yvonne McGuinness buy cinema in Dingle, Co Kerry

The cinema was built by brothers Jimmy and Johnny Houlihan and opened in 1919.

CILLIAN MURPHY HAS bought a cinema in Kerry that he used to visit as a child.

Murphy, from Cork, 48, and his wife, artist Yvonne McGuinness, will refurbish The Phoenix Cinema in Dingle next year.

The venue, which has been used as a movie theatre and dance hall, had been in operation for more than 100 years, and had been on the market for three years before McGuinness and Murphy bought the building.

“I’ve been going to see films at The Phoenix since I was a young boy on summer holidays,” Murphy said.

“My dad saw movies there when he was a young man before me, and we’ve watched many films at The Phoenix with our own kids. We recognise what the cinema means to Dingle.”

The town centre cinema is the only one in the tourist area of the Dingle Peninsula, in the Ring of Kerry. The closest other cinemas are in Tralee and Killarney.

Michael O’Sullivan, who bought The Phoenix in 1978, ran the venue until the Covid-19 pandemic, when it was shut during Ireland’s lockdown.

They cited rising costs, falling attendance and challenging exhibition terms.

McGuinness said: “We want to open the doors again, expand the creative potential of the site, re-establishing its place in the cultural fabric of this unique town.”

The Phoenix Cinema has also hosted the Dingle International Film Festival, which Murphy has attended, as well as independent and foreign language films, and a Tuesday night film club.

The cinema was built by brothers Jimmy and Johnny Houlihan and opened in 1919.

After fires in 1921 and 1938, the venue was reconstructed twice. In the second rebuild the art deco facade, phoenix floor mosaic and name were added.

In the 1950s, the Houlihans sold the venue to John Moore and it continued to be a cinema, concert venue and dance hall.

Guitarist Rory Gallagher performed there, and the David Lean-directed film Ryan’s Daughter, made in the area, was shown.

A campaign to save it was launched when it shut three years ago.

Earlier this year Murphy took the awards circuit by storm, winning a Golden Globe, a Bafta, an Academy Award and a Screen Actors Guild gong for Oppenheimer.

He played theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer in the Oscar-winning biopic about the father of the atomic bomb.

Murphy is also known for portraying gangster Tommy Shelby in the BBC drama Peaky Blinders, which debuted in 2013 and for which he has been nominated for a TV Bafta.

Peaky Blinders is to return with a Netflix movie, also starring Barry Keoghan.

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    Mute i.Have.it.Me.
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    Dec 25th 2021, 3:03 PM

    To much effort in doing that

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    Mute Dublin - Overheard
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    Dec 25th 2021, 3:13 PM

    Prosecco and cadbury chocolates

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    Mute Marie O'Neill
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    Dec 25th 2021, 4:13 PM

    Pudding all the way!

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    Mute Patrick Corr
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    Dec 25th 2021, 3:28 PM

    Homemade strawberry Baileys cheesecake nom nom

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    Mute Robert Clifford
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    Dec 25th 2021, 4:20 PM

    Cheeseboard and a bottle of Lynch-Bages.

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    Mute Dave Johnston
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    Dec 25th 2021, 4:19 PM

    Black forest gateau always goes down well

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    Mute James Rock
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    Dec 25th 2021, 3:57 PM

    And don’t forget the custard

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    Mute Edmund Murphy
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    Dec 25th 2021, 4:51 PM

    My Mother makes a Tiramasu so alcohol enriched that would floor a small horse. She never serves it for Christmas though. We have a cake and a pudding that were fed brandy for 4 months then.

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    Mute Eamon Kelly
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    Dec 25th 2021, 6:48 PM

    Romantica

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    Mute Olive Tierney
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    Dec 25th 2021, 11:06 PM

    @Eamon Kelly: My favourite, but couldn’t get any this year in any of the stores

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    Mute Eamon Kelly
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    Dec 26th 2021, 8:30 PM

    @Olive Tierney: same as

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    Mute Anna Carr
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    Dec 25th 2021, 6:05 PM

    Sherry trifle with rum cos you’ve no sherry lol. Awesome :)

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    Mute
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    Dec 25th 2021, 9:15 PM

    Guinness

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    Mute Stephen Boland
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    Dec 25th 2021, 10:21 PM

    @: sing it from the mountain tops!

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    Mute Rob Jones
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    Dec 25th 2021, 7:29 PM

    Chocolate Fondant.

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    Mute Derek Moran
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    Dec 25th 2021, 6:08 PM

    Where the heck is Pecan Pie?

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    Mute Eoin Roche
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    Dec 25th 2021, 11:55 PM

    Pavlova by a distance? What fresh hell is this? The answer is pudding with fresh cream.

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    Mute Mary Fitzsimons
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    Dec 26th 2021, 12:38 AM

    Good icecreams and a nice torte?

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    Mute Vlad Eire
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    Dec 25th 2021, 9:27 PM

    Whiskey

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    Mute Elizabeth Doyle
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    Dec 27th 2021, 3:45 PM

    I’m in my eighties now and for 20 years I made the sherry trifle in a beautiful red cutglass bowl and matching vase for the holly,recipe passes down from my great grandmother.I loved making it but there is no one to enjoy it now,so I don’t bother.

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    Mute Maureen Laraway
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    Dec 27th 2021, 11:27 PM

    Quiet cake, as my Nanny used to call it. It’s a bready fruit cake. My Nanny used to say if we made any noise while the cake was baking all the fruit would fall to the bottom. There might be some truth to that but I think she used it to her advantage

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    Mute Maureen Laraway
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    Dec 27th 2021, 11:26 PM

    Quiet cake, as my Nanny used to call it. It’s a bready fruit cake. My Nanny used to say if we made any noise while the cake was baking all the fruit would fall to the bottom. There might be some truth to that but I think she used it to her advantage

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