Deirdre Purcell (born Dublin 1945) is an Irish author. Purcell is a former Abbey Theatre actress, who has played as Christine opposite Donal McCann in Drama at Inish, Miss Frost in the stage adaptation of The Ginger Man, and Pegeen Mike in The Playboy of the Western World. Purcell is also a former TV and press journalist. She has been awarded The Benson & Hedges and Cross awards for journalism. She lived in Beara Peninsula West Cork. Since October 2009, she has presented All About the Music on RTÉ Lyric FM. She also presents "It Says in the Papers" on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1.
Deirdre Purcell was born and brought up in Dublin. She has published twelve critically acclaimed novels, most recently Pearl and The Winter Gathering, all of which have been bestsellers in Ireland. She lives in County Meath with her husband. She has two adult sons. Purcell was appointed to the board of the Central Bank of Ireland in 2003 and was serving in 2008 when the Irish banking system collapsed.