{"id":321237,"date":"2026-02-28T04:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321237\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T04:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T04:40:12","slug":"line-of-duty-star-amy-de-bhrun-says-her-son-river-is-a-kind-and-thoughtful-child-whose-autism-and-love-of-wearing-princess-dresses-and-tutus-inspired-her-new-film-samhain-and-she-has-much-to-say-abou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/321237\/","title":{"rendered":"Line of Duty star Amy de Bhr\u00fan says her son River is a kind and thoughtful child whose autism and love of wearing princess dresses and tutus inspired her new film Samhain. And she has much to say about the challenges she faced dealing with his diagnosis"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Line of Duty<\/a> star Amy de Bhr\u00fan\u2019s short film Samhain debuted at the Dublin International Film Festival, it was the proudest moment of her career so far.<\/p>\n

For, despite being a celebrated actor who has starred in the hit cop drama as Steph Corbett, and has led other series including Blackshore and Borderline,\u00a0 Samhain is a project that\u2019s close to her heart.<\/p>\n

She has written and stars in the film which is directed by her husband Sean Brannigan as it has been inspired by her own journey as a mother of a neurodivergent child.<\/p>\n

\"Amy <\/p>\n

Amy is a celebrated actor who has starred in Line of Duty as Steph Corbett, and has led other series including Blackshore and Borderline<\/p>\n

\u2018It kind of just poured out of me,\u2019 Amy says of writing her first short film. \u2018My son River had been diagnosed with autism at the end of November in 2024, so at the beginning of last year. I just started writing the story. I had this image in my head of him that I couldn\u2019t get out. And it was just a way of processing and transforming all those feelings that you feel when you are a mother whose child gets a diagnosis like that.<\/p>\n

\u2018And it was also a way of challenging those closed doors we kept coming up against, whether that was preschools not accepting him or a lack of supports being available to us or the fact that he\u2019s to go privately for most things because the waiting lists are so long.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy has a six and a half year old daughter Billie as well as River who is four.<\/p>\n

\"Amy <\/p>\n

Amy with her son River who has autism<\/p>\n

\u2018Billie is neurotypical and she ticked all the boxes the whole way along when she was growing up,\u2019 Amy says.<\/p>\n

\u2018But when River came along we noticed that his speech was delayed and that was really the only sign that something was amiss.\u2019<\/p>\n

As a baby, River suffered from problems with his chest and was hospitalised after contracting the RSV virus.<\/p>\n

\u2018He got Covid a couple of times so his chest as a baby was quite weak which meant he had to take a lot of antibiotics,\u2019 Amy says.<\/p>\n

When River\u2019s speech was delayed, Amy and Sean got his hearing checked and they were asked if he had a lot of infections as a baby.<\/p>\n

\u2018They had seen a lot of fluid in his ears and he got grommets and his hearing did improve then.<\/p>\n

\u2018Immediately he could hear everything whereas before he was hearing things like he was underwater. But his speech didn\u2019t come on so much.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy and Sean were advised not to seek an autism diagnosis until Rover was three so they worked instead with Cluas, an organisation which helps children with speech and language developmental delay.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2019We worked on that for a while and River\u2019s speech was improving but at a snail\u2019s pace,\u2019 Amy says.<\/p>\n

\u2018Then on his first day of preschool, the teacher said, \u201cYou need to get him assessed immediately.\u201d And that was quite a shock because we had been going on this journey of exploration and then suddenly it was demanded we get him assessed right away.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy and Sean filled out the forms for AIM Level Seven which allows providers to reduce staff-to-child ratios or hire extra staff so that River would have extra support. But the preschool wasn\u2019t able to provide it as they couldn\u2019t find anyone to employ.<\/p>\n

\u2018We kept being told then that they couldn\u2019t accommodate him and in fairness to the headmistress there, she recommended another preschool where they specialise in helping children with autism.<\/p>\n

\u2018And after another day of one school telling me \u201cwe can\u2019t keep him here\u201d I arrived on their doorstep crying.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was like someone was looking out for us because we were told there was a place available.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy and Sean went private to get River\u2019s diagnosis and he adapted well to his autism preschool.<\/p>\n

\u2018He loved it,\u2019 Amy says. \u2018It was like night and day how he responded as compared to before as suddenly he was going to a preschool where he was completely accepted versus a preschool where he was being tolerated.<\/p>\n

\u2018We always say we\u2019re so lucky, but every child has the right to their education. So it\u2019s awful that we feel lucky just because our child is getting his basic need, a basic right being met.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The cast and crew of Samhain at the Dublin International Film Festival<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was out of this that the film Samhain came, a story of a stressed mother Emma who realises eventually that her child deserves to be accepted as himself.<\/p>\n

And she feels the pace of change with regards to how children with autism are treated by society is changing but very slowly.<\/p>\n

\u2018My nephew has autism and the change that I\u2019ve seen in the last 10 years is quite slow,\u2019 she says. \u2018So I\u2019m hoping that in the next 10 years it\u2019ll speed up significantly. When my nephew was diagnosed with autism and when he got his diagnosis, I remember my sister had organised for AsIAm to go into the school and give a talk. And it was so enlightening.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy says if people understood more about autism it would be easier for children and adults to make simple switches to accommodate someone with the condition.<\/p>\n

\u2018There are very simple changes you can make that can change the course of your entire day,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

River is a kind and thoughtful child who, like Samhain in the film, adores wearing princess dresses and tutus.<\/p>\n

\"Amy <\/p>\n

Amy as Emma with Niall Deakin as Samhain in the film<\/p>\n

\u2018We just give ourselves extra time, do loads of preparation, let River know what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n

\u2018With my autistic child I have to be very much in the present and stay in the moment with them.<\/p>\n

\u2018But at the same token, you also have to have planned ahead so that you\u2019re bashing any obstacles out of their way and not making too many demands on him.<\/p>\n

\u2018So if there\u2019s something big on one day, if we\u2019re going to visit a grandparent or if we\u2019re going to go horse riding, we just keep it to that and everything becomes simplified around it. When you take off the demands, he actually is capable of so much more.<\/p>\n

\u2018River loves to feel safe. He loves wearing like tutus or princesses and he loves dressing up and if we tried to take that all off we\u2019d probably never get him into school.<\/p>\n

\u2018So again, it\u2019s just accepting that the lovely beautiful Christmas Day outfit that you planned for him might also contain like a tutu and a big headdress.\u2019<\/p>\n

She can see her beautiful son enjoying life and participating in his own way and says most of the pressure comes from the outside.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s a definite pressure,\u2019 she says, indicating that this again comes from a lack of understanding from the wider public. \u2018I\u2019ve been in public spaces where he\u2019s had a meltdown. \u2018River\u2019s actually the most gentle, sweet, very sensitive little child, but a meltdown looks like a tantrum, and looks like what we remember as a bold child, and that\u2019s not what it is. I\u2019ve definitely felt that pressure in public spaces; going to go to a preschool that he wasn\u2019t welcome at, I felt that pressure in so many ways and so many times but he\u2019s not going to conform to what the social norms are.<\/p>\n

\u2018And that is both beautiful and fabulous if you allow yourself to accept it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Amy remembers a trip to children\u2019s theatre The Arc to see How To Catch A Star.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were thinking \u201cOh God, will River be OK with this?\u201d because sometimes these situations are unknown to us.<\/p>\n

\u2018So we give it a go and we just go, but always be prepared to leave. We always have to be prepared to leave at the drop of a hat and not be sad about it.<\/p>\n

\u2018But we were there and he is in the middle of the audience and as soon as the puppet came on he said \u201cOh wow! Look! He\u2019s Here!\u201d and \u201cOh it\u2019s the star!\u201d Then there was a bit at the end where it almost looked like it was going to end and River like got up and started clapping. He said: \u201cOK, thank you. Go home now. Everyone go home.\u201d You have to allow yourself to accept that he\u2019s going to do stuff like that.\u2019<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what Samhain is essentially about, the enchantment that life in all its different colours can bring if you see things from another perspective. Amy is at pains to stress it\u2019s not a documentary, rather a work of fiction inspired by her own story. And she is grateful to have been able to get it premiered at the Dublin International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Samhain is also available to watch on the Virgin Media Player now for three months.<\/p>\n

\u2018I wrote the film, and then the opportunity for Virgin Media Discovers came up,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n

\u2018The great thing about the Virgin Media Discovers scheme is you can go to festivals with your film, which is really important. But then also people get to see it on the TV which opens up its audience instantly.<\/p>\n

\u2018And this particular subject matter, I think, in Ireland even at this time, just needs to be seen. So the fact that it\u2019s on the TV and it\u2019s on the player, and people have instant access to it, makes me so thrilled because I think it\u2019s a story that needs to be told.\u2019<\/p>\n

Samhain is\u00a0 available on the Virgin Media Player<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Line of Duty star Amy de Bhr\u00fan\u2019s short film Samhain debuted at the Dublin International Film Festival,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[539,93,61,60,83778,43],"class_list":["post-321237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-line-of-duty","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321237","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=321237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}