This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations .(March 2021) |
Mary McEvoy | |
---|---|
Born | 1954 (age 69–70) Delvin, County Westmeath, Ireland |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | Early 1980s – present |
Partner | Garvan Gallagher |
Mary McEvoy (born October 27th 1954) is an Irish actress. She is recognised by television viewers for having played the role of Biddy Byrne in Glenroe from 1983 to 2000. After that she has been in numerous plays, including Big Maggie, Sive , The Field , The Chastitute, The Vagina Monologues , Shirley Valentine, The Matchmaker, The Year of the Hiker, Dancing at Lughnasa , Whippy, The Life and Times of Selma Mae, Moonlight and Music and Jo Bangles. She is also noted for her washing powder advertisements on television. [1]
An only child, Mary's father Larry was a sheep and cattle farmer, while her mother Catherine was the local district nurse. The family was well off enough to have a TV, and McEvoy remembers being mesmerised by the leading ladies of the 1940s' films. [2]
Before becoming an actress McEvoy was employed at the Department of Agriculture in Dublin as a serological assistant testing for brucellosis. She left this position to return to work on her father's farm in Delvin County Westmeath Ireland. [2]
After returning to Dublin in the early 1980s, McEvoy got a job as a runner at the Dublin Theatre Festival and studied acting at the Oscar Theatre School. McEvoys earlier theatre work includes The Philanderer (George Bernard Shaw) and Semi-Private (Mary Halpin) at The Gate. She starred with Siobhán McKenna in the original production of Bailegangaire (Tom Murphy) and Wood of the Whispering (M. J. Molloy) with Druid Theatre directed by Garry Hynes, also Charlie's Aunt at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin. While at Oscar Theatre School she auditioned for Biddy Byrne in Glenroe and was given the part because she had a licence to drive tractors.
From 1983 through to 2000, Byrne became one of Ireland's best known television actresses in her role as Biddy McDermott in Glenroe. Mary left the show in 2000 saying "I was out shoveling in the goose pen in Glenroe and I just said, "I can't do this anymore. It wasn't that I didn't like it; it was just I knew that I had to jump and if I didn't do it now I'd be wondering, 'what if' for the rest of my life."" [2] After this Mary told the producers she wanted to leave the soap and her character Biddy was killed off in a car crash in May 2000, leaving fans of the show shocked. A few weeks later her co-star Joe Lynch announced he was also leaving the show. Glenroe was axed a year later in 2001.
McEvoy has appeared in the following films: How to Cheat in the Leaving Certificate , Moll Flanders and The Pear Bottle.
After leaving Glenroe, McEvoy has featured in the plays Big Maggie, Sive , The Field , The Chastitute , The Vagina Monologues , Shirley Valentine, The Matchmaker, The Year of the Hiker, Dancing at Lughnasa , Whippy, The Life and Times of Selma Mae, Moonlight and Music and Jo Bangles.
In 2010, McEvoy became a regular guest panelist on the TV3 show Midday and also was a guest on The Late Late Show in April 2011. In April 2011, McEvoy released her autobiography How The Light Gets In.
In 2009, on the documentary Would You Believe , McEvoy revealed that she suffered many years from depression, [3] and that she is a Buddhist. [4] McEvoy has been in a relationship with musician Garvan Gallagher for 23 years. [5]
Dancing at Lughnasa is a 1990 play by dramatist Brian Friel set in County Donegal, Ireland in August 1936 in the fictional town of Ballybeg. It is a memory play told from the point of view of the adult Michael Evans, the narrator. He recounts the summer in his aunts' cottage when he was seven years old.
Delvin is a village in County Westmeath, Ireland; it is located on the N52 road at a junction with the N51 to Navan. The town is 20 km (12 mi) from Mullingar.
John Brendan Keane was an Irish playwright, novelist and essayist from Listowel, County Kerry.
Glenroe was a television drama series broadcast on RTÉ One in Ireland between September 1983, when the first episode was aired, and May 2001. A spin-off from Bracken — a short-lived RTÉ drama itself spun off from The Riordans — Glenroe was broadcast, generally from September to May, each Sunday night at 8:30 pm. It was created, and written for much of its run, by Wesley Burrowes, and later by various other directors and producers including Paul Cusack, Alan Robinson and Tommy McCardle. Glenroe was the first show to be subtitled by RTÉ, with a broadcast in 1991 starting the station's subtitling policy.
The Riordans was the second Irish television drama serial made by Telefís Éireann. It ran from 1965 to 1979 and was set in the fictional townland of Leestown in County Kilkenny. Its location filming with outside broadcast units, rather than using only television studios, broke the mould of broadcasting in the drama serial genre and inspired the creation of its British equivalent, Emmerdale Farm by Yorkshire Television in 1972.
Anna Maria Manahan was an Irish stage, film and television actress.
Rosaleen Philomena Linehan is an Irish stage, screen and television actress.
Ireland AM is an Irish morning television show on Virgin Media One. It airs live every weekday from 07:00 to 09:55, and weekends from 9:00 to 12:00. The program features news, current affairs, weather updates, showbiz, fashion, beauty, food, health, home and garden. Its current weekday presenters are Alan Hughes, Muireann O'Connell and Tommy Bowe.
Eleanor McEvoy is an Irish singer-songwriter. She composed the song "Only a Woman's Heart", title track of A Woman's Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history.
Michael Lally was an Irish stage, film, and television actor. He departed from a teaching career for acting during the 1970s. Though best known in Ireland for his role as Miley Byrne in the television soap Glenroe, Lally's stage career spanned several decades, and he was involved in feature films such as Alexander and the Academy Award-nominated The Secret of Kells. He died in August 2010 after a battle with emphysema. Many reports cited him as one of Ireland's finest and most recognisable actors.
Bríd Brennan is an Irish actress who is known for her film, TV and theatre work. She originated the role of Agnes in the Brian Friel play Dancing at Lughnasa, for which she won the 1992 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. She is also a three-time Olivier Award nominee; for Rutherford and Son (1995), The Little Foxes (2002) and The Ferryman (2018).
"The By-road to Glenroe" was a song from the Irish television series Glenroe, performed by actor Mick Lally in character as Miley Byrne in honour of his wife Biddy. The song was released as a single in 1990, with the show's theme song performed by Jim Lockhart as the B-side, and was Number 1 on the Irish charts for five weeks.
Mrs Whippy is a novella By Cecelia Ahern. It is the story of Emelda, a middle-aged housewife and mother. Her husband Charlie Holt has left her for a younger woman and she is struggling to bring up her children. The book was written for charity and details Emelda's struggle to regain her self-esteem and get on with her life.
Leigh Arnold is an Irish actress. A native of Foxrock, County Dublin, Arnold is known for her role of Dr Clodagh Delaney in the Irish TV series The Clinic.
Mary Byrne is a top 10 selling Irish singer and TV presenter based in Ireland and the UK. Mary rose to fame in 2010 after becoming a finalist on the seventh series of The X Factor. After finishing fifth on the show, she signed a record deal with Sony Music Ireland. Byrne and her fellow The X Factor finalists gained a number-one single on the UK Singles Chart and the Irish Singles Chart with a cover of David Bowie's "'Heroes'" in aid of Help for Heroes.
Midday was an Irish television talk show programme skewed towards female viewers. The Show ran from 2008 to 2016. It was replaced by Elaine Crowley in 2017.
Claire Byrne is an Irish radio and television presenter.
Elaine Crowley is an Irish journalist, presenter and newsreader, best known for presenting Midday from 2010 to 2016 and Elaine from 2016 to 2021. Since September 2021 she has been a co-host on Ireland AM alongside Martin King and Katja Mia.
Catherine Walsh is an Irish actor of stage and screen.
Biddy White Lennon was an Irish actress and food writer.