The Irish Times - Tuesday, December 22, 2009

THE ACTOR Joan Brosnan Walsh, best known for her long-running role in Fair City, has died.

She played the character of Mags Kelly for almost 20 years on the soap based in the fictional Dublin suburb of Carrigstown.

Brosnan Walsh left the series in January 2009 because of health problems associated with motor neurone disease. She first noticed signs of the condition in October 2007 and was diagnosed the following spring.

Motor neurone disease is a degenerative condition which causes increasing loss of mobility in the limbs and difficulties with speech, swallowing and breathing.

After she left Fair City, she appeared on The Late Late Show in January with her husband, Willie, to discuss her condition. Many of her Fair City colleagues paid her warm and emotional tributes during the show and she received a standing ovation from the audience. She said the difficulty with speech was very frustrating and she was unable to sing any more. “That’s the hardest thing for me.”

Jane Gogan, commissioning editor of RTÉ TV drama, said she had learned of Brosnan Walsh’s death with great sadness.

“She has been at the heart of Fair City for the last 20 years and was without doubt one of its most popular characters. She was also one of the most warmly regarded colleagues in RTÉ and will be greatly missed by the Fair City cast and crew and all who worked with her in RTÉ, as well as her host of fans throughout the country.”

A statement on behalf of the Fair City cast paid tribute. “She was warm and lovely in person, a consummate professional and a delight to work with,” it said. “A talented actress, singer and artist who bore her illness with incredible dignity, she will be very much missed around Carrigstown.”

She also played the role of Mrs Orr in the 1997 film The Boxer and starred in Fatal Inheritance, a 1993 film based in Northern Ireland.

Joan Brosnan Walsh, who was in her 60s, had worked in Aer Lingus and as a costume designer for many years before becoming an actor. She is survived by her husband Willie and three daughters, Helen, Ingrid and Ruth