Darach Mac Con Iomaire

Born and reared in Dublin, Darach’s first taste of theatre was on arrival in University in Galway in 1996. Quickly addicted, he’s been writing and directing theatre, TV drama and feature films ever since.  

Darach wrote and directed the award winning TV series Corp + Anam during his two-year tenure as Development Executive with Magamedia. Corp + Anam received an IFTA award in 2012 and ‘Best Drama’ and ‘Spirit of the Festival’ awards at the Celtic Media Festival in Derry in 2012. 

Darach went on to write and direct the second series of Corp + Anam for TG4, which aired to critical acclaim in Autumn 2014. He has also developed and written Olagón – an Irish/Spanish feature film that was awarded development funding by The Irish Film Board and the European development funding scheme – MEDIA. 

Darach has extensive theatre experience and his six year tenure as Artistic Director of Taibhdhearc na Gaillimhe - The National Irish Language Theatre was acclaimed for its ambition, energy and creative flair.  

During this time his work was nominated for numerous awards, including two Irish Times Theatre Awards. He was presented with the BBC/Stuart Parker Award for new writing in 2005. Darach was also nominated for IFTA’s in the Best Writer and Best TV Drama categories 2012. The Screen Director’s Guild of Ireland presented Darach with Gradam Fhoras na Gaeilge in 2015. 

The second series of Corp + Anam also received an IFTA award and 'Best TV Series 2015' at the "Oireachtas National Media Awards". It was also nominated for the prestigious Prix Europa awards in Berlin the same year.  

Darach has directed over forty professional theatre productions, most of which have toured nationally and internationally, notably, Cré na Cille by Máirtín Ó Cadhain, An Béal Bocht by Myles na gCopaleen and Scéalta Ó Theach na mBocht by Eugene McCabe. 

Darach is currently (2017) commissioned by the Abbey Theatre to write a new play – BAOITE. 

Each workshop will be tailored to meet the needs/abilities of each particular group. The objective is to constantly challenge and inspire young people to flex their creative minds and imaginations. 

A sample session might work as follows: 

If working with infant and lower primary classes, I usually breakdown stories they already know into the various story elements. Using Cinderella or other classics, we discuss who’s the main character and why? What do they want? Why can’t they get it? What’s at stake? Who’s the antagonist and why? What’s the worst thing that happens? How does this turn out to be the best thing that happens? What’s the twist at the end? Does the main character get what they want – or what they ‘need’? What’s the difference? Do they have to pay a price at the end or is it a truly ‘happy’ ending? 

Once the children understand and relate these concepts to the story they already know, I then challenge them to each write a story of their own – in 7 minutes – by quickly writing down answers to each of the questions above. This speed-writing session is great fun and forces them to imagine and decide..! 

Once they have all answered the questions, I invite volunteers to tell us their stories. This workshop can be tailored to all ages and abilities (substitute Cinderella with Game Of Thrones or Breaking Bad for example) and is a very effective way to introduce young people to the concepts and importance of story structure.  

The awareness of these story concepts equips them to begin analyzing other stories by seeing the patterns that exist through all forms of storytelling and narrative content – from books, films, TV drama, x-box games to the many tonnes of advertising that they consume subconsciously in their daily lives.   

I am willing and able to work with all ages from Junior Infants to Leaving Cert Students. I will adapt the workshops to suit each group individually.