![\"Fair](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_ORLA-0002.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBeverley Callard joined the cast of the RTE soap earlier this year and also recently revealed a breast cancer diagnosis – Sorcha, who plays Orla Molloy, says the whole cast has been there for her<\/p>\n
Fair City star Sorcha Furlong<\/p>\n
Fair City stalwart Sorcha Furlong, who plays Orla Molloy <\/a>on the hit Irish soap, has described the cast of the show as a \u201cfamily\u201d, as she opened up about supporting new co-star Beverley Callard after she recently revealed a breast cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n Sorcha, who has spent over two decades in Carrigstown, shares a dressing room with Callard <\/a>on the set of the show <\/a>\u2013 and says the cast are \u201call there for each other\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI met Beverley when she first started and we said \u2018hello\u2019 but I wasn\u2019t doing scenes with her so it was just a \u2018how are you?\u2019, \u2018welcome\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then we shared a dressing room and when you share a dressing room with somebody you\u2019ve more time to spend with them so we shared a dressing room and I was talking to her about her husband and her dog because I had just got a puppy so we were chatting about that and then I said, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry to hear about your breast cancer\u2019 because she had just started sharing the news online.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I have to say, what a graceful lady \u2013 what a lovely, lovely lady.<\/p>\n \u201cFor someone who had just joined the show so recent and had such a life-changing experience, everyone just kind of banded together for her because everyone on that show is just family \u2013 we all know each other\u2019s kids, partners, etc.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve lost other actors, we\u2019ve lost crew, people have lost family members, but we\u2019ve always been there for each other and Beverley is under our umbrella now so everyone cares what happens next and we just want to support her as best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the past 26 years, Sorcha has had many sad, mad and explosive storylines. And while some storylines have been more challenging than others, the 49-year-old, whose character is currently grappling with her feelings over her onscreen son Junior growing up, still adores her craft \u2013 and loves \u201cbeing involved in other people\u2019s storylines\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes you have a storyline that\u2019s about you and everyone is involved in that and then sometimes you\u2019re involved in other people\u2019s storylines and I love both because sometimes when you\u2019re involved in other people\u2019s storylines, you won\u2019t have gotten to work with those people for a couple of weeks and so getting involved in Paul\u2019s storyline and Pete and Dolores\u2019 storyline, it\u2019s great \u2013 I love the whole fly-on-the-wall thing,\u201d Sorcha told Chic.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I think over the last couple of weeks it\u2019s been focused on, you know, the single mom, the money worries, the loneliness, which, for me, is really interesting.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s a hard thing to do \u2013 being involved in other people\u2019s storylines but also carry your own and so still being in your own feelings and character \u2013 but it\u2019s a great thing to do, to bring your character into other people\u2019s storylines.\u201d<\/p>\n Hours on set can be long and Hollywood superstar Ryan Gosling recently described soap actors as the hardest working people in showbusiness, describing learning 10-20 pages of dialogue daily as \u201ctechnical insanity\u201d.<\/p>\n But for Sorcha, this is all just part and parcel of the job.<\/p>\n She says, \u201cLast week I was in for two days and I was in every single scene from morning until evening and the crew would be like, \u2018how do you remember all the lines?\u2019, but after 26 years, you just do, you just put the work in, there\u2019s no bells and whistles.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong, there\u2019s days when it\u2019s 8 o\u2019clock at night-time and you\u2019ve been filming since early morning and you don\u2019t even know your name you\u2019re so tired, but we\u2019re all in the same ship, even the crew, so I just think, there\u2019s no solo players and we\u2019re all part of the show and we\u2019re all doing the same hours.\u201d<\/p>\n We are currently seeing Sorcha\u2019s character Orla\u2019s son Junior starting to show an interest in girls, with Orla struggling as he transitions into being a teenager.<\/p>\n In real life, Orla is mom to 16-year-old Stella but says being a mom to a teenage girl is very different to being an onscreen mom to a boy!<\/p>\n \u201cWhether you\u2019re a single parent or you come from a two-parent family, the teenage years are a challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cI try to remember what I was like as a teenager and the rebellion and the talking back, it is a rite of passage and it does happen at this age but I just think you try to teach them to be respectful.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll take the odd jab but then you have to kind of rein it in.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s different with Charlie (Duffy, who plays Junior)… because he\u2019s a boy and so he\u2019s really easygoing \u2013 just talks about football, you know.<\/p>\n \u201cHe only turned 13 there \u2013 he\u2019s the third of April and I turned 49 on the 4th of April \u2013 and every year I say to him, \u2018do you want to swap ages\u2019 and he goes, \u2018how old are you this year?\u2019 and I say \u201849\u2019 and he says, \u2018nah I don\u2019t want to swap!\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very comfortable with each other but we also work together so you try and maintain that friendship even though he\u2019s a teenager because you want him to feel safe around you but also have the craic and all that stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a scene recently where he was really cheeky to me and I said to him, \u2018no, you\u2019re not going\u2019 and he was like, \u2018aww, I hate you\u2019 and we filmed the scene and then afterwards he came up to me and was like, \u2018I\u2019m so sorry, I don\u2019t like talking to you like that\u2019. He\u2019s such a dote.<\/p>\n \u201cI am totally blessed with him \u2013 and his family are a gorgeous family too.<\/p>\n \u201cThen I have a 16-year-old girl who is also a gorgeous girl but 16-year-old girls are a challenge because they think they know everything and they don\u2019t! Or sometimes I think Stella thinks I came out of the womb at 46 and don\u2019t know how things are.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great challenge but sometimes you\u2019re like, enough with the challenge, just give me a chilled weekend,\u201d Sorcha laughs. \u201cBut we were all the same!\u201d<\/p>\n Sorcha has shared the screen with co-star Tony Tormey, who plays Paul Brennan, for the past 26 years after she was introduced as Niamh\u2019s cousin who then went on to date Paul.<\/p>\n And after years of sharing the screen intimately with each other, the pair have forged out a great real-life friendship.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t work 26 years with somebody and not become close,\u201d she says. \u201cSo I\u2019d know himself and his wife Kate very well outside of the show.<\/p>\n \u201cI started at 23 and I came in as Niamh\u2019s cousin and Niamh was engaged to Barry (O\u2019Hanlon, played by Pat Nolan) but she fancied Paul and then when I came in and started dating Paul she realised she had feelings and she said it to me and I said, \u2018yeh, whatever, it doesn\u2019t matter, I\u2019m not into bald men anyway, you can have him!\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThen there was me and Victor so you get very close to the people you\u2019re working with and then you get to know people in the other circles as well.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s 40 or 50 cast members and we wouldn\u2019t see each other all the time but we do cast drinks and it\u2019s lovely getting to know people outside of work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Orla\u2019 has had some heavyhitting storylines over the years but she pinpoints Junior\u2019s cancer diagnosis as the most challenging storyline she\u2019s had.<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely found the Junior being sick with cancer really challenging.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was challenging because you are so aware that there are parents out there going through it so you feel a great sense of responsibility to portray it \u2013 but everyone does, the writer, the director, everyone does.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when you\u2019re playing comedy scenes, that\u2019s obviously light release and you don\u2019t have to kind of think about it but then when you\u2019re playing hard-hitting scenes, the ones people can relate to, you have to take more responsibility over that.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want someone to be looking at a storyline and going, \u2018that\u2019s not true\u2019, \u2018that doesn\u2019t happen like that\u2019 or \u2018that\u2019s not how a parent reacts\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when Junior was in hospital, it had to be no make-up, I hadn\u2019t washed my hair so when I started playing that storyline I was like, I\u2019m not wearing a touch of make-up because I don\u2019t want a parent saying, \u2018she has mascara on, when did she get time to put mascara on when her child is sick?\u2019 \u2013 stuff like that, that you really have to take yourself out of it as an actor and try and relate to the person.\u201d<\/p>\n While a familiar face on Fair City<\/a>, Sorcha will also be well known among panto fans for roles as Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty (2022) and the Evil Baroness in Jack & The Beanstalk (2018\/2019) at the Civic Theatre in Tallaght \u2013 and she returns to the stage at the theatre from May 12-15 in Happiness Then… before moving on to the Viking Theatre Dublin from May 18-30.<\/p>\n A riveting comedy drama exploring the thorny relationship between two sisters, Sorcha stars alongside Kin\u2019s Rachael Dowling.<\/p>\n Eternally at odds, the sisters bicker as only sisters can over everything from the wine to the will!<\/p>\n Sorcha says, \u201cThe play is coming back in May and some of the crew have seen it and some of the cast have seen it and some haven\u2019t and they were asking me last week, \u2018which do you prefer?\u2019 \u2013 stage or screen \u2013 but it\u2019s a totally different beast. When you\u2019re on stage, you\u2019re there for 50 minutes and everything is instantaneous and you\u2019re in your head so when the crowd laugh you go, \u2018okay great, they\u2019re laughing\u2019, so you know whether they\u2019re enjoying it or not.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I\u2019m definitely more nervous going on stage than going on set in Fair City because on Fair City you\u2019re walking among friends and you\u2019re rehearsing it and then you\u2019re filming it. So it\u2019s totally different.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re both as great as each other and both rewarding but really different and for the first time I\u2019m doing both \u2013 filming Fair City during the day and doing the play at night.<\/p>\n \u201cI love a challenge so why not challenge myself more?\u201d<\/p>\n Sorcha turns 50 next year and has big plans to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n She told Chic, \u201cI love marking the day \u2013 I think it\u2019s really, really important to mark the day. Sure aren\u2019t we lucky to grow old?<\/p>\n \u201cMy birthday (this year) was Easter Saturday so me and my family, my parents, my sister, her husband and my nieces, me and my daughter and her friend, we all went out for dinner and then I had drinks.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year I\u2019m thinking of getting a villa and inviting friends and family and whoever wants to come can come.<\/p>\n \u201cWell I\u2019m saying that now but I\u2019m a crap organiser \u2013 but I\u2019m full of good intentions!\u201d<\/p>\n Want to see more of the stories you love from RSVP<\/a> ? 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