Delving into dark deeds in old Ireland

Journalist turned actor Joanne Ryan brings her inquisitive eye to the role of Bridgie Cleary who was killed by her husband in Tipperary in 1895 in the belief that she had been abducted by fairies with a changeling left in her place.

Ryan, who worked as a journalist in Bangkok for eight years, always had a yen for acting and after returning to Ireland, studied Irish in Connemara. She decided to audition for Ros na Rún and while she wasn’t initially successful, she was later cast as “psycho-stalker” Grace Gallagher,in the Irish language soap. The character was eventually written out of the programme when she was sectioned.

A form of madness and hysteria is also at the root of What Happened Bridgie Cleary, a chilling true story of immolation followed by a headline-grabbing trial. The play is produced by Limerick-based Bottom Dog Theatre Company. Ryan also played Bridgie, the wronged woman, in Bottom Dog’s first production of the play last autumn in a site specific venue, a Limerick snooker hall.