Dervla Kirwan

Dervla Kirwan
Kirwan at the 2009 BAFTAs
Born	Dervla Kirwan 24 October 1971 (1971-10-24) (age 40) Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Rupert Penry-Jones (m. 2007–present)
Children	Daughter and son

Dervla Kirwan (born 24 October 1971) is an Irish actress famous for roles in British television shows such as Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart. She also appeared in the Doctor Who Christmas special episode, "The Next Doctor" and provided the voiceovers for the well-known "this is not just food" television advertising campaign for UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

Kirwan was born in Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland. Her father was an insurance broker, and her mother was a language teacher. She is the youngest of three daughters. Dervla is a great grand-daughter of Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll who was a sister of Michael Collins, one of the Irish leaders during the War of Independence.

Career

Her first credited TV roles were in the TV series Troubles in 1988 and The Lilac Bus in 1990 alongside Stephanie Beacham based on Maeve Binchy's novel.

Dervla moved to London when she was sixteen when she was cast in a play at the Bush Theatre. She won acclaim in 1988 for her performance as the factory girl Linda in A Handful of Stars, the Bush Theatre premiere of the first play in Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy. In 1992, again at the Bush, she starred in a revival of the complete trilogy.

She got her television break in the 1991 BBC Scotland production of A Time To Dance, adapted by Melvyn Bragg from his own novel, playing Bernadette Kennedy. In the same year, she also appeared in the play Water Music at the Cockpit Theatre, written by award-winning playwright Lyndon Morgans (singer-songwriter with the Welsh folk noir band Songdog). In 1992, she also starred in Hush by April De Angelis at the Royal Court Theatre, while January 1994 found her playing in Peter Hall's seasonal production of Georges Feydeau's farce An Absolute Turkey at the Globe Theatre

Kirwan briefly appeared in Casualty, and in the first three series of Goodnight Sweetheart alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst. In 1997, she sang with Dustin the Turkey on his cover of "Fairytale of New York" for his album Faith of Our Feathers.

For 23 episodes, from 1996–1998, she appeared in Ballykissangel in the role of Assumpta Fitzgerald. Assumpta is the landlady of BallyK's only pub, Fitzgeralds, and is no friend of the church - until Father Peter Clifford (Stephen Tompkinson) is posted to the village from his previous parish in Manchester. She also continued this role for a Comic Relief special of The Vicar of Dibley, and in a Father Ted special. Dervla's performance in Ballykissangel won her the National TV Award for Best Actress in 1996, and the Irish Post Award for Best Irish Entertainer in 1997. In 1998, she starred alongside Christopher Eccleston in the film With Or Without You as Belfast girl Rosie Boyd.

In 1999, she appeared in another BBC production, a made for TV Christmas film called The Greatest Store in the World. She played the single mum of two girls who are made homeless a few days before Christmas. Kirwan co-starred with Brian Blessed and Peter Capaldi. In 2001, she starred in the TV series The Bombmaker as a former IRA bomb maker.

Kirwan starred in School for Seduction, a 2004 film which also starred Kelly Brook. She appeared in the BBC 1 crime drama series 55 Degrees North with Don Gilet, which aired in 2004. She returned for a second series in 2005. The series was shown in the US under the title The Night Detective. In 2005, she also appeared on the Lyttelton stage at the National Theatre in the role of Alice in Brian Friel's Aristocrats. In 2006, she played Bertha in Exiles at the National Theatre.

In 2007, she appeared in the BBC drama True Dare Kiss and on stage in Harold Pinter's Betrayal at the Donmar Warehouse.^[1]

Kirwan appeared as the villain Miss Hartigan in The Next Doctor, the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, alongside David Tennant and David Morrissey.^[2][3]

In 2009, Kirwan was in the BBC drama Moving On, where she played Laura in the episode Dress To Impress. She also guest starred in Law & Order: UK, playing the role of Beatrice McArdle.

Dervla's appeared in the Irish film Ondine alongside Colin Farrell and Stephen Rea which was released in 2009. She played Maura, the alcoholic bitter ex-girlfriend of Colin's character Syracuse. Dervla won the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Film at the 2010 Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTAs) for her role in Ondine.

Dervla appeared in the BBC drama series Material Girl, which aired in January 2010. She was also cast in the role of Bundle in Agatha Christie's Marple.

Dervla also appeared in the 4-part BBC drama The Silence.^[4] She played the role of the warm-hearted aunt of a young deaf girl who witnessed a murder. The Silence aired in July 2010. For her role as Maggie, Dervla won the Dagger for Best Supporting Actress at the 2010 Crime Thriller Awards.

Dervla has also been the subject of an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? in which she found out more about her Irish and distant Jewish descent. It was first shown on August 2, 2010.

In 2011, Dervla worked on Injustice a five-part psychological thriller on ITV written by Anthony Horowitz. Dervla starred as Jane Travers, wife of main character, Will Travers played by James Purefoy.

Other works in development include a fantasy film Luna and an independent thriller, Entity.

Personal life

Kirwan is married to actor Rupert Penry-Jones,^[1] with whom she has two children, Florence and Peter. She met him in 2001 while appearing in Dangerous Corner and they married in 2007 after a three year engagement. She had been engaged to her co-star in Ballykissangel, Stephen Tompkinson in 1998.^{[citation needed]}

She and Penry-Jones both appeared in Casanova in 2005, although they did not share any scenes. They had worked on stage together in 2001 in a West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, production of J B Priestley's Dangerous Corner, when he played Robert Caplan to her Olwen Peel. In November, the production transferred to the Garrick Theatre for a successful four-month West End season.

References

• Theatre Record and its annual Indexes

1. ^ ^{a b} Jones, Alice (2007-05-31). "Dervla Kirwan: The actress is breaking hearts as a two-timing temptress in Pinter's Betrayal". The Independent (London). http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2600311.ece. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
2. ^ "Cybermen invade Newport". South Wales Argus. 2008-04-11. http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/swanews/display.var.2188951.0.cybermen_invade_newport.php. Retrieved 2008-02-11. 
3. ^ "Step into the Tardis for Children in Need". BBC Press Office. http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/09_september/23/who.shtml. Retrieved 2008-09-23. 
4. ^ The Silence - BBC web site

External links

• Dervla Kirwan at the Internet Movie Database
• Dervla-Kirwan.co.uk
• "Dervla Kirwan: whirling Dervla" (actor profile)

Persondata
Name	Kirwan, Dervla
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1971-10-24
Place of birth	Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland
Date of death
Place of death