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McKenna, Siobhán

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From: The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
Date: 20000101
Author:ROBERT WELCH

McKenna, Siobhán (1923–1986), actress. Born in West Belfast, she was educated in Galway and Monaghan. As a student at UCG (where her father was Professor of Mathematics from 1928) she acted in An Taibhdhearc . In 1944 she joined the Abbey company , playing in many of the Irish and English plays of the period. Her roles included G. B. Shaw's Saint Joan at the Gate Theatre in the 1950s, and Pegeen Mike in J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World , the latter also in a film of 1961. In a late appearance, she created the role of Mommo in Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire in ...

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