Dervla Kirwan

In 1902, anti-Semitic judge Frederick Falkiner sentenced Kahn to a year in prison for breaking a shop window.

The trial was known as a "notorious miscarriage of justice" and likely inspired a passage in James Joyce's Ulysses.

Dervla Kirwan (born 24 October 1971) is an Irish actress.

Kirwan's 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.

Her breakthrough television role was appearing in the 1991 BBC Scotland production of A Time To Dance, adapted by Melvyn Bragg from his own novel, playing Bernadette Kennedy.

Kirwan briefly appeared in Casualty, and in the first three seasons of Goodnight Sweetheart alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst.

Kirwan began her career in the BBC series Goodnight Sweetheart (1993–1996) and Ballykissangel (1996–1998), the latter of which won her a National Television Award.

For 23 episodes, from 1996 to 1998, she appeared in Ballykissangel in the role of Assumpta Fitzgerald, the landlady of the village's only pub, Fitzgerald's. She reprised this role for a Comic Relief special of The Vicar of Dibley, and for a Father Ted special.

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 mother of two girls who are made homeless a few days before Christmas.

Kirwan co-starred with Brian Blessed and Peter Capaldi.

This was followed by further BBC roles in Hearts and Bones (2000–2001), 55 Degrees North (2004–2005), True Dare Kiss (2007), Material Girl and The Silence (both 2010).

In 2001, she starred as Emma Rose in a BBC series Hearts and Bones alongside Sarah Parish, Amanda Holden, Hugo Speer and Damian Lewis.

The show ran for two seasons.

She also starred in the Sky TV series The Bombmaker as a former IRA bomb maker.

She appeared in the BBC 1 crime drama series 55 Degrees North with Don Gilet, which aired in 2004.

She returned for a second season in 2005.

The series was shown in the US under the title The Night Detective.

In 2007, she appeared in the BBC drama True Dare Kiss.

She also guest starred in the Doctor Who Christmas special "The Next Doctor" (2008).

Kirwan was born in Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland.

Her father, Peter Kirwan, was an insurance broker, and her mother, Maureen O'Driscoll, was a language teacher.

She is the youngest of three daughters.

She attended Loreto Beaufort in Rathfarnham, Dublin, a Catholic school for girls, until the age of 16, when she was asked to leave as her career as an actress started to progress.

Kirwan completed secondary school at the now-defunct non-denominational Sandymount High School in Dublin.

Kirwan appeared as the villain Miss Mercy Hartigan in The Next Doctor, the 2008 Christmas special of Doctor Who, alongside David Tennant and David Morrissey.

She has received a number of accolades, including two IFTA Awards for her performances in the film Ondine (2009) and the RTÉ thriller series Smother (2021–2023) respectively.

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.

During an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? that aired in 2010, Kirwan learned more about her ancestors.

Her great-grandmother was Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll, sister of Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins.

Her maternal grandfather, Finian O'Driscoll, was Collins's nephew, and served three years with the Irish Republican Army.

Her paternal grandfather, Henry Kahn, was a Polish Jewish immigrant who had married her grandmother, Teresa O'Shea, a Catholic, in Ireland.

Kirwan 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.

Kirwan also appeared in the four-part BBC drama The Silence in 2010.

She played the role of Maggie, the warm-hearted aunt of a young deaf girl who witnessed a murder.

The Silence aired in July 2010.

In 2011, Kirwan worked on Injustice a five-part psychological thriller on ITV written by Anthony Horowitz.

She starred as Jane Travers, wife of main character, Will Travers played by James Purefoy.