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.