Young Irish star Saoirse Ronan has spoken about her joy at being nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance in 'Atonement'.
In an interview with RTÉ Arts & Media Correspondent Sinéad Crowley, which can be heard here, the 13-year-old said she was "feeling absolutely brilliant" over the nomination.
Paying tribute to her colleagues on 'Atonement', the star also said she was delighted that Armagh-born cinematographer Séamus McGarvey had also received an Oscar nomination for his work on the same movie.
Ronan said: "I'm just so thrilled that two Irish people have been nominated for an Oscar for the same film. I'm just so proud. It's really brilliant."
The 13-year-old said she wasn't thinking about the nomination and tried to put any thoughts of it to the back of her head.
"I wasn't thinking about it at all. People were saying are you thinking about the Oscars after the BAFTAs and all that, and I just said 'no I can't think about it'. Because if I think about it then I might start to get excited and if it doesn't happen, I might get disappointed. So I was just trying to completely put it out of my head."
Ronan added: "I'm still pinching myself that any of this has happened, never mind the Golden Globe and the Peter Jackson film. I can't even believe it. I think though that it happened so fast that now I have to accept that that's what I do and that it's in someway normal."
Ronan also took the time to send greetings to her relations and friends in Ardattin, Co Carlow.
She is currently in New Zealand where she is working on an adaptation of Alice Sebold's acclaimed novel 'The Lovely Bones' with director Peter Jackson and actors Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz.
