Dervla Kirwan

Dervla (meaning "Daughter of a poet") Kirwan was born in October 1971 in Churchtown, Dublin. Her father worked in insurance and her mother was a French and English teacher. She has two older sisters. She was just 15 when she landed her first role in the BBC Drama _Troubles (1988)_ (qv) and a year later she got a part in the first part of Billy Roche's "Wexford Trilogy," which ran from 15 Feb-19 Mar 1988 at the Bush Theatre, London. She played this role again when the plays were made into a TV series broadcast 31 July 1993. Her stage work continued with "Poor Beast In The Rain," the second part of the Wexford Trilogy, (Bush theatre 13 Nov-22 December 1992/TV 7 August 1993), "Hush" (Royal Court Theatre 10 Aug-7 Sept. 1992), "Water Music" (Cockpit Theatre 23 Sept-17 October 1992), "Once A Catholic" (Tricycle Theatre 18 December 1992) and "An Absolute Turkey" (Globe Theatre 27 Dec 1993). Her only feature film to date is _December Bride (1990)_ (qv) although she is currently waiting to hear about 3 or 4 film projects. On television she has appeared in _A Time to Dance (1992)_ (qv) (12 Jan-2 February 1992), _Goodnight Sweetheart (1993)_ (qv) (which she quit at the end of the 1996 series, handing over the character to 'Elizabeth Carling' (qv)), and _Ballykissangel (1996)_ (qv). On October 8th 1996 she won the National Television Award for 'Most Popular Actress' for her role as Assumpta in Ballykissangel.::Becki Stunell <[email protected]>