Joan O'Hara (10 October 1930 – 23 July 2007) was an Irish stage, film and television actress. She was one of Ireland's most popular actresses and was, at her death, recognisable to television viewers as Eunice Dunstan, a gossip in Fair City on RTÉ One.
Personal life
O'Hara was born and raised in Finisklin, Sligo, the daughter of Major John Charles O'Hara, a civil engineer and sometime officer in the British Corps of Royal Engineers and his wife, Mai (née Kirwan). One of her sisters, Mary (born 1935), is a soprano and harpist. She attended the same Ursuline convent school as fellow actress and friend, Pauline Flanagan.
O'Hara lived most of her life in Monkstown, Dublin, with a stay in London, with her husband, poet and architect Francis J. Barry. The couple had four children: Siubhan, Jane, Guy, and Sebastian, an author and playwright, whose works include The Steward of Christendom, and the Man Booker Prize-shortlisted novels A Long Long Way and The Secret Scripture.
O'Hara was a year-round sea-swimmer.
Death
Joan O'Hara Barry (she kept her maiden name as her stage name) died in Dublin on 23 July 2007 of complications from a blood clot, aged 76. Her death was announced on RTÉ News the following day.
See also
- List of Fair City characters
- List of longest-serving soap opera actors#Ireland