This year marks 31 years since a movie about a group of Dubliners who form a band to play American soul was unleashed into the world.
Know it yet?
The Commitments has grown to become a cult classic and to mark its 31 anniversary, we decided to take a look at where the original members of the band are now.
Andrew Strong – Declan (Deco) Cuffe (vocals)
After The Commitments, the band’s lead singer took a step away from acting but continued working in the music world.
Dublin born Andrew Strong actually grew up in County Tyrone. His father, Rob, was a singing coach who performed with showbands.
Since the 1991 movie’s release, Andrew’s released a number of albums and toured with the likes of The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, and Bryan Adams.
He doesn’t tour with the official tribute act to The Commitments, but he did perform with the original cast for the 20 anniversary concert in Dublin’s O2 Arena in March 2011.
Bronagh Gallagher – Bernie McGloughlin (backing vocals)
Her involvement in The Commitments was a springboard towards massive success for Bronagh Gallagher.
A few years after her role as Bernie McGloughlin, the actress from Derry appeared in the classic Quentin Tarantino movie, Pulp Fiction. A far way from Bernie’s life in the Northside of Dublin!
She also appeared in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Thunderpants, Sherlock Holmes, and Grabbers. Most recently, Bronagh played Speer in historical drama Belgravia.
Maria Doyle Kennedy – Natalie Murphy (singer)
Maria Doyle Kennedy’s acting career has only grown from strength-to-strength following her debut acting role as Natalie Murphy.
She went on to play Patsy, the long-suffering assistant of television personality, Eoin McLove, in Father Ted.
The Clontarf’s actress’ other roles over the years include Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors, Vera Bates in Downton Abbey, and Siobhan Saddler in Orphan Black. She’s even made it as far as Hollywood, with acting credits in The Conjuring 2, Jupiter Ascending, and Sing Street.
Angeline Ball – Imelda Quirke (backing vocals)
Similar to the other ladies in The Commitments, her role as Imelda Quirke proved to be Angeline Ball’s breakout role.
The Cabra native has continued to act since the film’s 1991 release and has carved out quite the path.
She took on the role of Tina in the 1998 Irish crime film, The General, and has made numerous TV appearances including in Doc Martin, Shameless, Mr Selfridge, and as Maggie Townsend EastEnders.
Glen Hansard – Outspan Foster (guitar)
After his role in The Commitments, Glen Hansard went on to become one of Ireland’s most successful and popular musicians.
The Ballymun man’s band The Frames enjoyed chart success with their albums, For The Birds and Burn The Maps. Glen also formed side project The Swell Season with Czech singer and future girlfriend, Marketa Irglova.
The pair starred in and wrote the soundtrack for Once, going on to win an Oscar for Best Song for the movie’s track Falling Slowly.
Glen has also gone on to achieve great success in his own right, with four solo albums under his wing. He continues to tour to this day.
Johnny Murphy – Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan (trumpet)
It was originally thought that Van Morrison and Rory Gallagher were up for the role of the mysterious trumpeter.
But director Alan Parker wanted an experienced actor to mentor the mostly unexperienced and untrained acting cast, and so chose Johnny Murphy.
After the film’s release, he went on to roles in Irish classics Into The West and Angela’s Ashes.
Sadly, he died of respiratory failure in February 2016.
Robert Arkins – Jimmy Rabbitte (manager)
Robert Arkins was originally cast as Deco Cuffe in the movie after a whopping seven auditions! However, he was replaced in that role by Andrew Strong, and went on to play the band’s manager Jimmy Rabbitte.
Originally from Drumcondra, Robert has been a professional musician since he was 15. After the release of The Commitments, he moved back into music and signed a record deal with MCA Records in 1993 but didn’t finish recording the album he’d been signed for.
After a brief return to acting in 1998’s ‘What Are You Looking At?’, Robert returned to music, composing and producing tracks for commercial clients and television.
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