Joan Brosnan Walsh

Who was Joan Brosnan Walsh?

Joan Brosnan Walsh was a veteran Irish actress, best known for her long-running role as the character Mags Kelly on the Irish soap opera Fair City, a role she had played for almost twenty years, from 18 September 1989 until her final screen appearance broadcast on 11 January 2009.

Brosnan Walsh appeared in a number of films such as The Boxer and Fatal Inheritance. She also worked as a costume designer. She first worked for ACNielsen and Aer Lingus, the latter providing her with her first experience of acting. After nearly twenty years she announced her departure from Fair City in January 2009 after declaring that she had contracted motor neurone disease the previous year.

She discussed her disease during an appearance alongside her husband, Willie Brosnan Walsh, on The Late Late Show on January 23, 2009, receiving a standing ovation at the end. She had painted since the 1970s but her illness forced her to revert from landscape painting to abstract painting.