Career
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. She appeared as Maurya in the 1988 film The Dawning. She appeared in a number of other films, including Ron Howard's Far and Away, Da, Footfalls, Home is the Hero and just before her death, How About You.
The strength of her performance and bravery in carrying it out, was acknowledged by the cast and crew in a standing ovation. More recently, O'Hara was best known for appearing in the popular Irish television soap opera Fair City, broadcast on RTÉ One. She joined the soap in 1994, portraying the character Eunice Dunstan until her own (O'Hara's) death in 2007.
Thus she was described as both one of Ireland's most popular actresses and as one of the finest actors of her generation on her death. She admired in particular Samuel Beckett, Federico García Lorca and Ingmar Bergman. While she took a no-nonsense approach to her craft, famously giving the advice that when in doubt, one should relate to the fireplace, she was educated at the Abbey School of Acting and had a deep appreciation and knowledge of theoretical approaches to acting and was an admirer of the European and American avant-garde.
As actor Alan Stanford said after her death, "She had the most amazing energy. She was in the truest sense one of the last of the greats". Joan O'Hara Barry (she kept her maiden name as her stage name) died in Dublin on 23 July 2007 of complications from heart disease, aged 76.
Her death was announced on RTÉ News the following day.
