‘Glenroe’ actress ‘felt obliged to carry on’ despite depression

Actress Mary McEvoy has battled depression for most of her adult life — but never once dropped her “tough little woman mask” as she struggled on.

Mary, still best known for playing Biddy in the long-running RTÉ series Glenroe, said she always felt obliged to carry on as if things were normal for her.

She said: “It’s the brittle world of showbusiness, it’s just not done. You don’t let your guard down. The game must be played and the rules observed. If we are to be honest about it, it’s the same everywhere in society. If you feel your heart is breaking, you just keep it to yourself and carry on.

“The tough are lauded and the vulnerable are seen as not being able to pull their weight. So everyone plays the game. I played it. It was like, ‘Howya Mary?’ ‘Sure I’m great.’ Most people with mental illness play until they can’t do it anymore, and then they crack.

“I know I sound gloomy and the subject is not a fun one, but in it I believe there is great hope. I believe the interest in mental health now is such an opportunity for society as a whole. If I, scared and sad as I can be sometimes, can live and live well with this bloody thing, then so many others can too,” she told the latest issue of Woman magazine.

“How do I do it? I drop the shame, and I don’t allow others to shame me. I go to therapy, I listen to my doctor. I work on minding myself, and that has been the hardest thing to do.”

Mary still works in the entertainment business, and plans to keep working. She added: “I have lost some friends, but I have found better, truer ones. And I talk and talk because we must drop the shame, stigma, and prejudice around mental illness. There is really no need for any of it. We have to confront this shame and ignorance.”