{"id":388519,"date":"2026-04-08T18:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388519\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:43:07","slug":"michael-patrick-pioneering-irish-actor-dies-from-motor-neuron-disease-at-35-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/388519\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Patrick, pioneering Irish actor, dies from motor neuron disease at 35 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Patrick<\/a>, whose growing theatre career was significantly altered by a diagnosis of motor neuron disease<\/a>, has died at the age of 35.<\/p>\n

The Belfast actor, whose portrayal of Richard III at the Lyric Theatre<\/a> in 2024 was the first time that an actor with a disability had played the Shakespearean role on the island of Ireland, died on Tuesday, April 7th, at NI Hospice. He had been diagnosed with MND in 2023.<\/p>\n

His wife, Naomi, said his family was broken-hearted. She posted on social media that \u201cMick was an inspiration to everyone who was privileged enough to come into contact with him, not just in the past few years during his illness but in every day of his life. He lived a life as full as any human can live. Joy, abundance of spirit, infectious laughter. A titan of a ginger haired man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patrick, whose name offstage was Michael Campbell, was regarded as one of Ireland\u2019s most gifted performers. He was also, with his writing partner, Ois\u00edn Kearney<\/a>, half of a successful creative team. The pair met at Cambridge University, where Kearney studied politics and Patrick studied physics. Together they ran the university\u2019s Irish Society and, as director and actor respectively, made several productions, including Frank McGuinness\u2019s Someone to Watch Over Me.<\/p>\n

Patrick\u2019s father died of MND when his son was a young boy. In 2017 the actor confronted his loss by writing<\/a>, in tandem with Kearney, My Left Nut, a bleakly humorous autobiographical solo play, focused on the turmoil of a vulnerable adolescent struggling to deal with an alarming medical condition with no father to turn to.<\/p>\n

In 2025, at Dublin Theatre Festival<\/a>, Patrick performed the solo show My Right Foot, a deeply personal 70-minute chronicle of motor-neuron disease that was a masterclass in humour, honesty and resilience.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0My Right Foot, at Dublin Theatre Festival, is a masterclass in humour, honesty and resilienceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier that year the actor\u2019s role as the wheelchair-using king in The Tragedy of Richard III won him the judges\u2019 prize at the Stage Awards, at the Royal Opera House in London.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael Patrick on Richard III: \u2018It\u2019s the first time on the island of Ireland a disabled actor has played this role\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In February Patrick posted that he had decided not to have a tracheotomy \u2013 which would have allowed an artificial airway to be fitted to his throat, to help him to breathe \u2013 so that he could instead spend more time out of hospital during what his neurologist had said would probably be the final year of his life.<\/p>\n

The actor\u2019s funeral<\/a> will take place at 11am on Monday, April 13th, at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Carryduff, Co Down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Patrick, whose growing theatre career was significantly altered by a diagnosis of motor neuron disease, has died…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16955,93,61,60,172581,172580,43966,172582],"class_list":{"0":"post-388519","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dublin-theatre-festival","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-lyric-theatre","13":"tag-michael-patrick","14":"tag-motor-neurone-disease","15":"tag-oisin-kearney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388519","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=388519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}