Waking Ned

Waking Ned is a comedy film produced by Richard Holmes and Glynis Murray. The film is a production of Canal+ and Tomboy Films and was distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. Waking Ned runs for 91 minutes. It was released in 1998 to positive reviews. In the small Irish town of Tulaigh Mhór lives a pair of older friends named Michael O'Sullivan, played by David Kelly, and Jackie O'Shea, played by Ian Bannen. One day, the two men are informed that a person living in their town has won the Irish National Lottery. The men then team up with Jackie's wife, Annie, played by Fionnula Flanagan, to seek out the winner in the hopes of sharing in the prize money.

After carefully narrowing down their list of potential winners, Annie, Michael and Jackie travel to the home of Ned Devine, the man who they believe to be the winner. When they arrive, however, they discover Ned smiling and clutching his ticket, dead from the shock of winning. Jackie eventually comes to believe that because Ned had no family, he desired to share the money with his neighbors instead. After learning just how large the jackpot was, Michael and Jackie enlist the help of all of the town's inhabitants to trick the lottery claim inspector into believing that Ned is still alive by having Michael impersonate him. But a miserable villager named Lizzie Quinn, played by Eileen Dromey, elects not to go along with the others' ploy to collect the winnings and intends to reveal the truth and collect a small portion of the prize for herself.

Waking Ned stars Ian Bannen, Fionnula Flanagan and David Kelly. The film was written and directed by Kirk Jones. Waking Ned was filmed on the Isle of Man.