Irish stage and screen star Fionnula Flanagan is among this year's nominees for the Tony theatre awards in the US, and is joined on the shortlist by her co-stars in Troubles drama The Ferryman, Laura Donnelly and Paddy Considine.

Flanagan is nominated in the Best Featured Actress in a Play category for her performance in the Broadway production of the Jez Butterworth play.

She is joined on the shortlist by Celia Keenan-Bolger (To Kill a Mockingbird), Kristine Nielsen (Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus), Julie White (Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus) and Ruth Wilson (King Lear). 

Flanagan's last Tony Award nomination came in the same category in 1974 for Ulysses in Nighttown. The Tony Awards are known as 'the Oscars of the theatre world'.

Speaking to Broadway World after her nomination, a "bowled over" Flanagan said: "I came in halfway through the broadcast [nominations], so I missed part of it, but I saw that The Ferryman got quite a few nominations, and I said, 'My gosh!' And then I came to realise that I did too!"

Belfast-born Donnelly is nominated in the Best Leading Actress in a Play category for The Ferryman alongside Annette Bening (All My Sons), Elaine May (The Waverly Gallery), Janet McTeer (Bernhardt/Hamlet) and Laurie Metcalf (Hillary and Clinton).

Donnelly has already won an Olivier theatre award in the UK for her performance.

Laura Donnelly with her Olivier award

In total, The Ferryman, which is set in Co Armagh during the Troubles in 1981, has nine nominations, including a Best Actor nod for Considine and a place on the Best Play shortlist. Musical Tootsie leads the nominations with 11.

The winners will be announced in New York's Radio City Music Hall on Sunday, June 9.