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HE MAY SEEM LIKE A PERMANENT FIXTURE IN THE HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER, YET BRENDAN GLEESON IS NO STRANGER TO LOW-BUDGET IRISH FILMS. HIS ROLE IN MARTIN MCDONAGH'S OSCAR-WINNING SHORT SIX SHOOTER WAS ANOTHER TOUR DE FORCE AND HIS NEW FILM SEES HIM RETURNING TO HIS ROOTS, PLAYING A DUBLIN SOCCER MANAGER IN PAUL MERCIER'S VERSION OF HIS PLAY STUDS. MICHAEL DWYER TALKS TO ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S MOST PROLIFIC ACTORS

O VER coffee in a Dublin hotel last Monday afternoon, Brendan Gleeson is beaming with pleasure that Martin McDonagh's Six Shooter collected an Oscar the night before. That dark, violent short film features Gleeson as a grieving widower and Ruaidhri Conroy as a loquacious, possibly psychotic younger man, who meet on an Iarnrod Eireann train.