Dervla Kirwan

Dervla Kirwan
Kirwan at the 2009 BAFTAs
Born	Dervla Kirwan (1971-10-24) 24 October 1971 (age 45) Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1991–present
Spouse(s)	Rupert Penry-Jones (m. 2007)
Children	2

Dervla Kirwan (born 24 October 1971) is an Irish television and stage actress who has had roles in British television shows which included Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart among others. She also appeared in the Doctor Who Christmas special episode The Next Doctor, and provided the voiceovers for the "This is not just food" television advertising campaign for UK retailer Marks & Spencer.

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 school Sandymount High School in Dublin.

Kirwan's paternal great-grandfather was a Polish Jewish immigrant who had married Kirwan's paternal great-grandmother, a Catholic, in Ireland. Kirwan is a great-granddaughter of Margaret Collins-O'Driscoll, who was a sister of Michael Collins, one of the Irish leaders during the Irish War of Independence. Kirwan's maternal grandfather Finian O'Driscoll was Michael Collins's nephew.

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.

At the age of sixteen Kirwan moved to London when she was cast in a play at the Bush Theatre. She won acclaim in 1988 for her performance as the factory girl Linda in A Handful of Stars, the Bush Theatre premiere of the first play in Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy. In 1992, again at the Bush, she starred in a revival of the complete trilogy.