Best known as Biddy from Glenroe, Mary McEvoy is thrilled to play a well-written character with their own story arc.
In the film Abode, Mary plays Peggy, a woman who receives a visit from a former suitor (Brendan Conroy) keen to rekindle a romance. But her son is not happy — and does what he can to keep them apart.
Written and directed by Irish filmmaker Liam O Mochain, Abode features a stellar cast that also includes Mary Murray, Marion O’Dwyer and Stephen Jones. The feature film includes five stories connected by the theme of home and what that means to the different characters in the film. “It’s a film with a theme of ‘home’ that will resonate with so many people,” says O Mochain.
Mary as Peggy, who gets a visit from an old admirer, played by Brendan Conroy
“A theme that is always relevant, no more so than today. The stories are a mix of drama and comedy, inspired by true stories, events or incidents.”
Mary was glad to work with O Mochain, who she previously teamed with on another film, Lost and Found. “To use very non-cinematic language, he’s not up himself,” she says of the filmmaker.
“He’s telling the story, he knows what he wants, and he’s spinning all the plates. He’s a producer, he’s a director, he’s a writer.”
She also relished the opportunity to bring a rounded female character to the film, adding that often, women of this age are on screen because they’re another character’s mother.
“They don’t have their own story arc, they don’t have their own centre, they don’t have their own line in the film. You’re there because you’re the lead’s mother. Liam’s women exist in their own right, they have their own stories to tell. They’re not an appendage to someone else’s life.”
Gail Brady, Jed Murray and Matthew O’Brien
It helped, she adds, that she got to work with top Irish actor Brendan Conroy. “Brendan and I have worked in lots of things over the years, and our paths have crossed so many times. He’s an amazing actor, and he’s the sharpest dresser I have ever come across, just a great guy.”
Mary has starred in dozens of TV shows and movies including Striking Out, Bridget & Eamon and the horror comedy Extra Ordinary. On stage, she’s starred in such iconic plays as Dancing at Lughnasa and The Matchmaker.
But for many of us, she will be best remembered as the straight-talking Biddy Byrne, whose marriage to Miley in Glenroe was Ireland’s Sunday-night water-cooler moment before we even had water coolers.
Mary in Abode
News in 90 Seconds – Wednesday, November 12
The show was a life-altering casting which turned her into a household name and she played Biddy for 16 years. It comes as a surprise to hear that when she left Glenroe, she thought that could have been the end of her acting career.
“When I left Glenroe I thought I wouldn’t work again. I actually retrained as a TEFL teacher. I thought if I was teaching English as a foreign language, I wouldn’t have to be getting over the Biddy barrier every time, because they wouldn’t know who I was.”
It was a subsequent casting in The Chastitute, she says, that helped change her mind and she would go on to enjoy a theatre career spanning over two decades.
Rose Henderson and Liam O Mochain
Why did she feel leaving Biddy behind also meant leaving acting?
“I was never burdened with a lot of self confidence vis-à-vis my career. In that Ireland that was then — I think it’s a big difference now — you weren’t encouraged to believe in yourself as an actor.
“Other actors would, but the powers that be wouldn’t tell you that you were valued. [I thought] this is my one hit wonder, even though I’d done theatre before that.
“I had been in it for 16 years and I thought: ‘That’s it now’ and I was perfectly happy for that to happen. Then it all started to grind up again, and I started doing theatre.
“It was 2000, going on 26 years ago. It was very different then, and the whole atmosphere around television and the arts was different.”
Mary was born and raised on a farm, and has long joked that being able to drive a tractor helped her seal the Glenroe deal. “I didn’t have to act being familiar with getting over a gate, it was there within me.”
Stephen Jones in Abode
Back in 2003, she and her long-term partner Garvan returned to the family farm where she grew up in Co Westmeath permanently, a decision she is glad she made.
“You know, it’s been wonderful for me. It’s been literally earthing for me. I don’t farm animals for slaughter, I just have lots of beautiful pets that I look after, and rescues and things, and that’s lovely, and that keeps me sane.”
Over the years, fitness has also been a greatly beneficial part of her life, so much so that in 2022 she trained as a Pilates instructor. “I walked in and I was by far the oldest person on the course. I don’t know why I thought that there would be people pushing 70 who wanted to be a Pilates teacher!” she laughs.
“I don’t know why it was such a surprise to me, but there was a huge sense of pride in doing it. What my body learned to do and became capable of doing in just the short year that I qualified — it’s extraordinary what the body can do.
Mary in Glenroe
“I do Pilates because it’s extremely good, and I found a gym, which is literally eight minutes from my door, and it’s in the middle of the country, in a field, and it has become church for me. Not just from the point of view of working out three times a week, but also the sense of community.”
In terms of future ambitions, Mary says she would like to take up running again. And although she says she is “very content” with her life, she’d be open to further acting roles. “I’d like a nice acting job where I had to wear a frock. I’d love to wear a frock. I never had to wear frocks.”