Neasa Ní Annracháin (; 17 October 1922 – 18 December 2014) was an Irish actress known for her work on Irish radio.

Early life

Ní Annracháin was born on 17 October 1922 to farmer and author Peadar Ó hAnnracháin from Skibbereen, and his wife, Máire Ní Suithe from Kinsale. She was the second of six children. She attended the Mercy Conservancy Primary School in Skibbereen and a Hawthorn Secondary School in the same area. When her family moved to Dublin, she attended Chatham Street Music College where she played to violin. She also took classes at the Abbey Theater Drama School. Several members of her family pursued careers in the arts, her brother Ciarán (stage name Kieron Moore) was a film and television actor, while her brother, Fachtna, was director of music at

RTÉ Radio RTÉ Radio is a division and service of Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), which broadcasts four analogue channels and five digital channels across Ireland. Founded in January 1926 as 2RN, was the first broadcaster in ...

, and her sister, Bláithín, played the harp with the

National Symphony Orchestra The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1930 by cellist Hans Kindler, its principal performing venue is the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The NSO regularly ...

Career

Ní Annracháin worked as a civil servant in the Pigs and Bacon Commission, but in 1948 she married Cork civil servant Seán Ó Briain, and as a consequence was required to leave her job, as was the law at the time. In 1950 she joined the

Radio Éireann Players The Radio Éireann Players (RÉP) were a repertory company for radio in Republic of Ireland, Ireland, formed in 1947, which performed in regular drama productions for Irish broadcaster, RTÉ Radio 1, Radio Éireann. After the depredations of the Th ...

(REP), a repertory company for radio in Ireland. She became a well-known voice on Irish radio and gave performances in both Irish and English. She was noted for her ability to perform in a wide range of theatrical styles, from

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909), popularly known as J. M. Synge, was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, essayist, and collector of folklores. As an important driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival, Ir ...

to John B. Keane, and from

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...

. She played Mommo in the radio version of Tom Murphy's Bailegangaire in 1987. For a long period she read poetry on ''

Mo Cheol Thú ''Mo Cheol Thú'' (literally "you are my music": a traditional expression of praise in the south-west of Ireland for any outstanding feat

'', an activity she continued for many years after formally retiring from the REP in 1988.

Awards

* In 1975, she won a Jacob's Award for her "outstanding contribution to a distinguished company of actors". * In 1982 the

attracted international attention when they broadcast an uninterrupted, unabridged, 30-hour dramatised performance of

's epic novel ''Ulysses'', to commemorate the centenary of the author's birth.''1982 Recordings''
RTÉ. Retrieved: 2010-09-12. The record-breaking marathon broadcast was carried by live relay internationally and won a Jacob's Broadcasting Award in recognition of its achievement. Ní Annracháin played "Old Gummy Granny"

Personal life

In 1948 she married Cork civil servant Seán Ó Briain, and they had three children, Doireann, Nuala and Éanna. Their oldest daughter Doireann followed her mother's footsteps into a radio career, and is an Irish independent radio producer.

Later life and death

After her husband died in 1991, she sold her Howth cottage in Dublin and returned to her native Skibbereen. In 2009 suffered a stroke and had to move into a nursing home, where she died on 18 December 2014.Ainm.ie: Neasa Ní Annracháin biography
/ref>

References

External links

MyHeritage.com: Neasa Ní Annracháin

IrishPlayography: Neasa Ní Annracháin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ní Annracháin, Neasa 1922 births 2014 deaths Actors from County Cork 20th-century Irish actresses Irish radio actresses People from Skibbereen