Having been the recipient of several acting awards over the years, well-known Westmeath actress Mary McEvoy is delighted to have been nominated for her first book award for her memoirs How the Light gets in, published earlier this year.
The book is Mary’s memoir, in which she writes candidly about her battle with depression, and it has been shortlisted for a Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award. It’s certainly a long way from her rural upbringing on a north Westmeath farm, but the grounded actress, best known as Glenroe’s Biddy and for her extensive theatre and broadcasting career, has come full circle, and currently lives with her partner on the family farm in Delvin.
Mary has happy memories of growing up in Westmeath.
“I grew up on a farm, I was an only child. It was an idyllic childhood, playing with the neighbours’ kids. I have very happy memories of growing up in the Delvin area,” she tells the Advertiser.
Mary left home at a young age for boarding school, and then spent two years working as a civil servant in Dublin before the acting bug hit while she was working for the Dublin Theatre Festival. She studied acting at the Oscar Theatre Company.
“I always enjoyed acting but I didn’t think that it was possible for people like me to become professional actors. But once I got into acting circles I realised that all sorts of people turn professional,” she says.
Mary’s big break came when she appeared in a production of George Bernard Shaw’s Philanderer in the Gate Theatre, and within a year she had landed the part of Biddy in Glenroe, where she remained one of the nation’s most loved characters from 1983 to 2000.
She now owns theatre company Esca Riada with Caroline Fitzgerald, and while she has always enjoyed theatre, Mary says TV is her natural home, and she is a regular panellist on TV3’s Midday and on Tom Dunne’s show on Newstalk.
“I always enjoyed TV. I do act on stage but now I much prefer TV. I do a lot of broadcasting, and whatever opportunities come my way I make the best of them. I’m very happy with what I do on TV3 and Newstalk.
“I enjoy being a panellist, there is not as much pressure as theatre. Theatre can take itself too seriously, and that doesn’t go down well with me.”
Penning her autobiography How the Light gets in was Mary’s first foray into writing, and she says she would never have considered it had she not been approached to do so after speaking out about her battle with depression on RTE’s Would You Believe.
“I was asked to do it, I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of doing it otherwise. I was taken aback that anyone would be interested in what I had to say,” she says.
The title comes from the Leonard Cohen song ‘Anthem’, which includes the lyrics “There is a crack, a crack in everything/ That’s how the light gets in”.
Mary says she has never had a problem with being open about her depression.
“I’m always surprised that people are reticent about talking about it, and at families who want to keep it quiet. I’m terribly surprised by the stigma, as I’m not remotely ashamed of it. The more people know when someone is suffering, the more they can be sensitive.”
Mary now lives on the family farm in Delvin, and says she “never really left home”.
“Around the time my mother died I was doing a lot of touring, and it made more sense to live in Westmeath. No matter where you’re going it’s not a long drive. I do miss Dublin and I go up a lot, I miss the ease of being able to just go out and meet friends; in the country there is more organisation in going out to meet someone.”
As one of Ireland’s most recognisable actors, does Mary get spotted a lot when she’s out and about?
“It never went away but it’s increased a lot in recent years. But I’m more at peace with it now,” she says.
“I don’t like people aggressively shouting ‘Biddy’ at me, as it’s not my name! I don’t like people being in my face, but generally people are lovely. Now I am much more recognised as myself. Particularly with my condition if you’re not having a good day and someone comes at you, it can knock you back.”
Mary is now looking forward to attending the Irish Book Awards and finding out if her book is successful in the RTÉ Radio 1 The John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice award category.
“I met some of the nominees at the launch, and everyone is just delighted to be nominated. No one is chewing their fingers off to win but of course it would be lovely.”
Members of the public have until midnight on November 13 to cast their votes at www.irishbookawards.ie
