Bairbre Dowling

Bairbre Dowling (/barˈba.ra/; Irish: Bairbre Ní Dúnlaing; 27 March 1953 – 20 January 2016) was an Irish actress of screen and stage. She began her career as a child actor in Francis Ford Coppola's first feature, Dementia 13 (1963). She would go on to appear in multiple films, including John Huston's final feature, The Dead (1987), based on the James Joyce novella of the same name.

On television, Dowling was best known for her role as Josie Tracy on the long-running RTÉ drama serial The Riordans, which aired from 1965-1979. In 1983, she starred as Margaret Flaherty in the Emmy Award winning television film adaptation of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World for PBS. Her other television credits included guest spots on 1st & Ten, Scarlett, Murder, She Wrote, ER, Star Trek: Voyager, Crossing Jordan, and Days of Our Lives.

A veteran of the stage, Dowling began performing at the National Theatre of Ireland in the 1970s. In 1979 she made her Broadway debut as Mary Tate in Hugh Leonard's Tony Award winning play Da, and would go on to appear in over 70 professional stage and radio plays.

Dowling was born in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest daughter of actors Vincent Dowling and Brenda Doyle. She had three younger sisters, Louise, Valerie and Rachael, who is also an actress. The family lived on Shanowen Road in Santry, Co. Dublin. Her parents had a relatively progressive marriage, allowing for both to partake in a series of extramarital affairs. One such affair produced her sister Valerie. Although aware of this, Vincent always functioned as the girl’s father.^[1] However, their marriage eventually dissolved in 1967 over Vincent’s relationship with a much younger Abbey actress, Sinéad Cusack, daughter of the renowned actor Cyril Cusack. Dowling's affair with Cusack produced a son, Richard Boyd Barrett, who was put up for adoption. Barrett’s paternity was not revealed until after Vincent’s death in 2013.^[2]

Dowling formally trained as a dancer, but began acting as a child. She made her screen debut in 1963 as Kathleen Haloran in Academy Award winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola's first feature film, Dementia 13. The film tells the story of Louise Haloran (Luana Anders), a scheming widow who upon murdering her husband John (Peter Read), fears she will be disinherited. Fabricating a story about John's absence, she joins the rest of the Haloran family at their estate in Ireland as they hold a memorial for John's younger sister Kathleen (Dowling). Louise plots to convince Lady Haloran (Eithne Dunne) that she can speak with the deceased child. However, her plans are interrupted by the sudden appearance of the girls' ghost, and an axe-wielding murderer.

In 1970 Dowling joined the company at the Abbey Theatre, where she appeared in Wesley Burrowes’ The Becauseway (1970), Tom Murphy’s On the Outside, and Maureen Duffy’s and Rites (1973).^[3] She married fellow actor Colm Meaney in 1977, and together they emigrated to the United States to work with her father, Vincent Dowling at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival. Later that year, Dowling made her American stage debut as Ophelia in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Later that season she appeared as the titular Margaret "Peg" O'Connell in J. Hartley Manners’ Peg o’ My Heart, and Laura Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie. Dowling would continue to appear in the theatre's main company for the next seven years. Credits from this period included Maggie Wylie in J. M. Barrie’s What Every Woman Knows (1978); Blanche of Castile in Shakespeare’s King John (1978), Lavinia in Titus Andronicus (1980), and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (1981); Margaret Flaherty in John Millington Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World (1982), Mum in Jeremy Brooks and Adrian Mitchell's stage adaptation of Dylan Thomas’ A Child's Christmas in Wales 1983), and Helen in C. P. Taylor’s And a Nightingale Sang (1985).^[4] Perhaps most notably from her time at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Dowling and Meaney shared the stage in the American premiere of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby in 1982. The play is an 8½ hour-long adaptation of Charles Dickens’ 1839 novel of the same name, performed in two parts. Part 1 was 4 hours in length with one interval of 15 minutes. Part 2 was 4½ hours in length with two intervals of 12 minutes. It was originally presented onstage over two evenings, or in its entirety from early afternoon with a dinner break. The production was a critical and commercial success, later transferring to Merle Reskin Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

During her tenure at Great Lakes, Dowling was cast as a replacement in the original Broadway run of Hugh Leonard's Tony Award winning play Da at the Morosco Theatre (1979).^[5] The following year she appeared as Miranda in William Shakespeare's The Tempest at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida (1980). The production was included in the Burns Mantle Yearbook of Best American Plays, 1979-1980.

In 1985, Dowling and Meaney relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she would continue to work regularly on stage. In 1990 she appeared as Marion in David Hare's The Secret Rapture at South Coast Repertory. The following year she played Lady Macbeth in the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble's production of William Shakespeare's Macbeth in downtown Los Angeles. In 1993 she appeared as Penelope, Calypso, and Athena, in Oliver Taplin's ambitious stage adaptation of Homer's The Odyssey at The J. Paul Getty Museum, produced by Mark Taper Forum. Later that year she reunited with her father to appear in Mitch Giannunzio's Last Tag at the newly formed Chester Theatre Company, now a premiere theatre in the Berkshires. Dowling returned to Chester Theatre Company the following summer to appear as the titular Fanny Kemble in Anne Ludlum's An Audience With Fanny Kemble. Later that year she appeared as Maggie in Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa at Studio Arena Theater in Buffalo, New York.

In 2000 Dowling appeared as Miss Pope in David Grimm's Sheridan, or Schooled in Scandal at La Jolla Playhouse. Then in 2002 she starred as Geraldine in Bernard Farrell's Stella by Starlight at Laguna Playhouse. In 2004 she returned to Chester Theatre Company to star in the American premiere of Isobel Mahon's So Long, Sleeping Beauty. She would return the following year to appear as Esther Franz in Arthur Miller's The Price. In 2007 she would return to Chester Theatre Company again to star in a double-bill of Jerome Kilty's Dear Liar and Bruce E. Rodgers' the Gravity of Honey. In 2009 she relocated to New York City, appearing Off-Broadway as Annie Twohig in Lennox Robinson's Is Life Worth Living? at the Mint Theater Company. She would return to the Mint in 2011 to appear as Maggie Cooney in Teresa Deevy's Temporal Powers. The production was named a "Critic's Pick" by The New York Times. In 2013 she appeared as Marthy Owen in a site-specific production of Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie at the Waterfront Museum's Lehigh Valley Barge No. 79, produced by Spleen Theatre. The following year she appeared as Aunt Queenie in John Van Druten's Bell, Book and Candle at The Gene Frankel Theatre. Later that year Dowling would make her final stage appearance in an adaptation of Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club.

Dowling first rose to prominence for her long-running turn as Josie Tracy on the RTÉ drama serial The Riordans, which ran from 1965-1979. In 1980 she appeared as Maureen in Michael O'Herlihy's television film Cry of the Innocent for NBC. In 1983 she starred as Margaret Flaherty in a television film adaptation of J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World for PBS, directed by her father Vincent Dowling. In 1987 she had a small role in Rod Holcomb's television film The Long Journey Home for CBS. The film won a Regional Emmy Award. She had guest spots on numerous other television series, including 1st & Ten (1986), Scarlett (1994), Murder, She Wrote (1995), ER (1997), Star Trek: Voyager (2000), Crossing Jordan (2003), and Days of Our Lives (2007).

After previously working as a child actor, Dowling returned to the silver screen as Star in Academy Award nominated filmmaker John Boorman's 1974 science fantasy epic Zardoz. In 1987 she appeared as Miss Higgins in Academy Award winning filmmaker John Huston's final film, The Dead, based on the James Joyce novella of the same name. Her final film appearance came in BAFTA winning filmmaker John Roberts' 1994 drama War of the Buttons, playing Geronimo's Mum opposite her real life husband, Colm Meaney.^[6]

In addition to her work on television and film, Dowling was a prolific voice actress on radio. A longtime ensemble member of the California Artists Radio Theatre (CART), she performed in over 30 live radio play recordings.^[7]

From 1977 to 1994, Dowling was married to fellow actor Colm Meaney, with whom she frequently appeared opposite on stage and screen.^[8][9] Together they had one daughter, actress Brenda Meaney, born in 1984.^[10]

Dowling died in 2016 from complications of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. She was 62.^[5][9]

• Bairbre Dowling at IMDb
• Bairbre Dowling at the Teresa Deevy Archive
• Bairbre Dowling at Mint Theatre Company
• Bairbre Dowling at The Abbey Theatre Archive
• Bairbre Dowling at the British Film Institute