![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5511a41d-a518-44d6-bfdd-9191aa18940b.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMr Bartley, who featured in the soap for 34 years, said that his wife, Helen (Cahill) received a shocking phone call from a cousin this morning. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe (her cousin) was ringing to say he was sorry for her loss. And Helen said \u201cwhat loss?\u2019 He said it was about \u2018Jim passing away.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said (to him) \u2018No, he has not, he is sitting right here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said I would have to try and ring the family. But then I said I would ring Liveline. It is the best way to get an announcement out that I am still alive as you have a listenership across the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jim Bartley on the Fair City set with screen daughters Suzanne (left, played by Sarah MacDowall) and Yvonne (played by Alex MacDowall, Sarah’s real-life sister)<\/p>\n
Host Kieran Cuddihy revealed that a false report of the actor\u2019s death appeared on a Fair City fan Facebook page.<\/p>\n
Alongside the announcement, a doctored image claiming to show his funeral was also shared. The photo depicts pallbearers carrying a casket while a female mourner holds a picture of Mr Bartley.<\/p>\n
Mr Bartley said that \u201cAI technology\u201d was proving to be \u201cthe ruination of a lot of people\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is terrible and I don\u2019t know how to handle it. I don\u2019t even know how to get on to Facebook. It is a shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo all those people who are shocked, I\u2019m really sorry that they had that sort of news. It is not funny.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I try to get a laugh out of it myself but when you realise the serious effect it has on people, it is not funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Facebook fan page has 11,000 followers. The picture and a story about the fake funeral remains online.<\/p>\n
Facebook has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Mr Bartley has had a long career in showbusiness first appearing on RT\u00c9\u2019s first soap, Tolka Row, at the age of 18.<\/p>\n
The actor, who is a native of Drimagh in Dublin, was honoured on the Late Late Show in 2013 as he celebrated 55 years in showbusiness.<\/p>\n
Mr Bartley was born in 1945 and began his career in the Olympia Theatre in 1958 in a production of the Remarkable Mr Pennycracker. He has had an extensive career in the theatre.<\/p>\n
He has also appeared in television shows such as The Bill, Coronation Street, The Irish RM, and Z Cars.<\/p>\n
His film career includes appearances in the War of the Buttons, Ulysses and The Pink Panther Strikes Again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mr Bartley, who featured in the soap for 34 years, said that his wife, Helen (Cahill) received a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,69545,61,60,6085],"class_list":["post-232857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-fair-city","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}