Maria Doyle Kennedy is one Ireland's most loved and most successful actresses and singers.
The Dubliner rose to fame when she was headhunted to star in the iconic movie The Commitments in 1991 and now, most recently, she is playing Bridget 'Birdy' Goggins in RTÉ latest crime drama Kin, the sister to gangland bosses Bren and Frank Kinsella.
Away from the worlds of TV and film, and music, Maria is married to musician Kieran Kennedy after they met when she was in Hothouse Flowers and she is a mum to four kids.
Marriage and family life
Maria first met her husband musician Kieran Kennedy at a gig she was performing at. The couple hit it off and tied the knot in 1988 wedding and they later and formed The Black Velvet Band.
"I suppose you could say that Kieran swept me off my feet. He approached me when I was still singing in Hothouse Flowers, to do backing vocals on a demo tape for the Velvets," she previously told the Sunday Mirror.
"I thought he asked me because he knew my singing but it was only years later that he admitted that he asked me because he fancied me."
The couple have four sons. Whenever Maria is working overseas, her family always join her for the duration because they don't like to be away from each other for too long.
"Kieran is a musician, so he can always bring his work with him. It doesn't suit us to be apart, or away from the kids, for too long," she told The Sunday Times.
One of their sons was born with Down Syndrome.
"I never talk about my sons in public," she said. "I will not discuss their names or ages. They are my life.
"When I discovered that the youngest had Downs it was a big shock - we just weren't expecting it
"We went through all the feelings of shock and wondered how we were going to cope and raise him. He was also born with a heart condition.
"I had a lovely birth at home but he suffered heart failure and had to be rushed to hospital.
"My husband Kieran and I were so worried about his illness. He had the heart problem for a few days after he was born.
"I was in a heap and really tearful all the time. Then something suddenly happened to me - I think it was because he was so ill that it overrode everything else.
Career in TV and Film
Maria got her big break in 1991 when she co-starred in the musical comedy-drama The Commitments as Natalie Murphy.
From there, she went on to bag a number of high profile TV roles including: Patsy in Father Ted (1998), Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors (2007–2010), Vera Bates in Downton Abbey (2011), Siobhan Sadler in Orphan Black (2013–2017), and Jocasta Cameron in Outlander (2018–present).
She also played Ila in Amazon Prime's epic fantasy drama series The Wheel of Time in 2020 and she was cast as Scottish journalist Tannie Maria in the series Recipes for Love and Murder this year.
Maria has also appeared in numerous films over the years, including The Matchmaker (1997), The General (1998), Miss Julie (1999), Tara Road (2005), Albert Nobbs (2011), Byzantium (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015), Sing Street (2016), and The Conjuring 2 (2016).
KIN
As present, she is playing Bridget 'Birdy' Goggins in RTÉ latest crime drama Kin, the sister to gangland bosses Bren and Frank Kinsella.
This is not the first time she has worked with Aiden Gillan, who plays Frank. They also played brother and sister on Channel 4's Queer as Folk and they were a married couple in Irish movie Sing Street.
"Birdy is such an interesting person.It's not even that she has different bits of her personality; she has contradictory bits of her personality, which real people do have," she told The Sunday Times.
"She doesn't wear fur, for example, because she wouldn't hurt animals. But she's had people killed.
"Going into season two, Birdy has a bit more money. She ups the ante in her living arrangements and her style. She starts to spend a bit more on herself."
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