Ardmore Studios, in Bray, County Wicklow, is Ireland's oldest film studio.
It opened in 1958 under the management of Emmet Dalton and Louis Elliman. Since then, it has evolved through many managements and owners. It has been the base for many successful Irish and international productions, including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Fair City, Braveheart, My Left Foot and Veronica Guerin.
The studio struggled through several changes of ownership in its early years, entering receivership in 1963, 1971 and 1972.[1] After several ownership changes, the studio became the government-backed National Film Studios of Ireland in 1975, under the management of Sheamus Smith.[1] During Smith's tenure, notable movies based there included Michael Crichton's The First Great Train Robbery, starring Sean Connery. When government funding was withdrawn in the early 1980s, Ardmore was briefly owned by the Indian producer Mahmud Sipra, before the studios were taken over in 1986 by a consortium made up of Mary Tyler Moore Enterprises, Tara Productions (Ireland) Limited, and the state National Development Corporation.[1] Tara CEO Morgan O'Sullivan attempted to attract major international film and television productions to Ireland, but several planned MTM productions failed to materialise, and when MTM was sold to the UK company Television South in 1988, the MTM stake was sold to Ardmore Studios International, a company owned equally by U2 manager Paul McGuinness and show business accountant Ossie Kilkenny.[1] [2] Under managing director Kevin Moriarty, the studios thrived during the 1990s and 2000s as the Irish film and television industry expanded. Notable productions during this time included Far and Away (1992), The Tudors (2007-2010) and Camelot (2011). Following the opening of rival Ashford Studios, Ardmore began to struggle financially.[3] In 2013 Siún Ní Raghallaigh was appointed CEO, implementing cost cuts and restructuring the company.[4] In 2018, Ardmore was sold to Olcott Entertainment, an Irish company headed by businessman Joe Devine, who had developed another rival studio, Troy, in Limerick during 2017. Ní Raghallaigh was retained as CEO of both studios. Olcott sold Ardmore and Troy to a US consortium headed by Hackman Capital Partners in 2021.[1]