*Mary Harvey.
TRIBUTES have been paid to Newmarket-on-Fergus actress Mary Harvey.
Best known for her role as Bridie Clancy on the Pat Shortt created TV series, Killinascully, Mary died peacefully on August 19th.
A native of Bruff in Co Limerick, Mary had resided on the Ballycar Rd in Newmarket-on-Fergus for some time and in her later months was in Carrigoran House. Her mother Sadie who was a stalwart of The Bruff Shamrock Players who were the dramatic group in Bruff throughout the 1930s and 1940s.
While living in Newmarket-on-Fergus, she was a key member of the parish choir and indeed one of the more colourful singers of the group with her sense of fun always clear to see.
Her work with the Torch Players meant Mary was a popular name on the Limerick amateur theatre scene. She performed in many Torch Players productions as well as Granary Players where she was fondly remembered for her portrayal of the role of Maimie Flanagan in 1995.
With Torch she won Best Actress Awards year after year at Drama Festivals throughout the country. She won Best Actress for her playing of Beatrice in The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds at the All Ireland Drama Finals in Athlone and the Dundalk International Festival in 1998.
On several occasions, she won the best actress award on several occasions for the West Clare Drama Festival held in Doonbeg.
Her performances were still recalled with fondness decades on by founders of the festival. “She had a caravan over in Tommy Tubridy’s caravan park. She’s a great character,” Johnny Igoe recalled back in 2011. Murt McInerney added, “I remember her playing a drunk one night in Memory of Water. She was so drunk that she was hanging onto the door coming in. To get that right is something else. In another part in it they were waking her mother. She was so out of it that she fell into the wardrobe. Perfect”.
Maurice O’Sullivan of the Torch Players described Mary as a “wonderful, talented, unique and very funny” person. He recalled, “Mary first went on the stage with the Fit Ups in such exotic venues as Bundoran and Ballybunion in the sixties – at the age of 14, with the reluctant permission of her Mother. I first met her when she was acting in John Mc Grath’s Anvil Players and when that Group took a sabbatical she came to Torch”.
Chris Rowley, an actor and entertainer for the medieval banquets in Bunratty Castle said Mary was “a talented actress and giving of praise and support to anyone who she worked with. A true pro and a pleasure to be with, whether on stage or in the green room”.
PRO of the Clare Drama Festival Tom Hanley said, “She used to grace the boards in Scariff with Torch Players for many years. She was some actress”.
Mary is survived by her partner Frank, sister Carmel, nephews Pat and John Paul, niece Michelle, grandnephew Ryan, extended family, neighbours, drama community and her many friends.
