Blánaid Irvine: BLÁNAID IRVINE, who has died aged 87, was described on her arrival in Dublin in 1954 as the "best young actress on the Irish stage today". She went on to enjoy a distinguished career on stage, radio and television.
Her colleague at RTÉ, Laurence Foster, last week said she was a “sophisticated actress of class and style”. Producer Lelia Doolan remembered her “on a bicycle, heading for RTÉ and a radio play, scarf floating behind”; she described her friend as “gallant and welcoming always, interested in everything and ready for a party anytime”.
Born in 1922 in Moneyglass, Co Antrim, she was one of nine children of John and Eleanor Irvine. In 1925 the family moved to Belfast, where she was educated. She developed her interest in drama and elocution while attending the Dominican secondary school, Fortwilliam.
In the early 1940s she contracted tuberculosis, and spent her 21st birthday in hospital. She made a full recovery. In 1948 she enrolled at the Guildhall school of music and drama, London. On qualifying, she returned to Belfast and joined the Arts Theatre.
She played the title role in Anastasiawith Victor Lucas. Her success resulted in an invitation from Lord Longford's company to play the role at the Gate in Dublin.
She later joined the Dublin Globe Theatre, and made her name in Pádraic Fallon's The Seventh Step(1954), Jacques Banard's The Sulky Fire(1955) and Graham Greene's The Living Room(1955).
She co-wrote Sally's Irish Rogue(1958), one of the first films made at Ardmore Studios. Reporting on the premiere in Cork, The Irish Timesstated that the film had no pretensions to Oscars but was intended as a "light, frothy, second-feature comedy which would be box-office in any country".
Other screenwriting credits were The Big Birthdayand This Other Eden,both released in 1959.
In 1966 Irvine's adaptation of The Plough and the Starsfor Teilifís Éireann was hailed by this newspaper as a "splendid piece of work".
Her career was interrupted when, on Christmas Day 1971, she was in a serious car accident in which her eldest sister Eileen, the driver, was killed.
Resuming her career in 1977 she founded Domino theatre company with Gavin Freeman.
Much in demand as a reader of poetry, she had a weekly slot on Liam Nolan's RTÉ radio programme Here and Now. She regularly contributed to Ciarán Mac Mathúna's Mo Cheol Thú.
She featured in many RTÉ radio dramas, and was a member of the cast of Harbour Hotel.Other radio work included Book on One, and one of her last broadcasts was in Alan Bennett's Talking Heads. She appeared in the BBC serialisation of Walter Macken's The Island of the Great Yellow Oxand in the films Widows' Peakand Ailsa.
Theatre was her abiding interest, however. When not performing on stage, she attended as many plays as possible.
She died after a long illness.
Her sisters Margaret and Brenda survive her.
Blánaid Irvine: born March 26th, 1922; died January 17th, 2010