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The cortege arriving at St Catherine's Church in Dublin, for the funeral of Oscar-winning actress Brenda Fricker.
Must ReadThe Liberties
'The curtain has fallen on this life, but what a performance it was': Dublin says goodbye to Brenda Fricker
The Oscar-winning actress’s funeral heard she was a “true legend” who was full of laughter and mischief and lived a life “full to the brim”.
LAST UPDATE | 6 Aug
ON MEATH STREET in the heart of Dublin’s Liberties, it seemed the whole neighbourhood had lined both sides of the road outside St Catherine’s Church to say goodbye to one of Ireland’s most celebrated actresses.
Brenda Fricker died on 16 July in Our Lady’s Hospice in Harold’s Cross at the age of 81 after a period of ill health. She was the first Irish woman to win an Academy Award and enjoyed a successful career that spanned six decades.
But to this community, she was just one of their own.
“What you see with people in The Liberties is the exact same way Brenda was. There was no airs or graces,” Catherine O’Connor told The Journal.
O’Connor owns a flower shop and a household products store on the street, both of which Fricker shopped in “for many years”, she said. Her mother, Kathleen Farrell, ran the stores before her.
“Brenda and my mam would have been very friends. She’d often sit there in the summertime with her.”
Sarah Conway, another local woman who grew up on Meath Street, has known Fricker since she was a child. She wrote a poem in celebration of her life, which was posted on the railings outside the church.
“It’s just a little something from all of us here in the Liberties, because she will never, never be forgotten,” she told The Journal.
In a nod to one of Fricker’s best known roles, artwork that Conway’s two children had made was hung alongside the poem. It depicted her as the ‘Pigeon Lady’ in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. “RIP Brenda, you will forever live on,” one read. “Love from your neighbours in the Liberties.”
Fans of the screen legend were also there to pay their respects. Bernard told The Journal that The Field, in which she starred opposite Richard Harris, was “the best movie ever”.
He met Fricker at the 2003 Irish premiere of Gangs of New York at the Savoy where he worked as a senior usher. “She was a lovely lady.”
‘This is not a day for sorrow’
The applause rang out the length of the street before the vintage Rolls Royce carrying Fricker’s wicker coffin came into view, adorned with flowers and the Dublin municipal flag.
It rang out again as the coffin was carried into the church, which was completely full. Several people stood at the back until the end of the service.
Among the congregation were actor Brendan Gleeson, director Jim Sheridan, costume designer Joan Bergin, former Irish footballer-turned-pundit Richie Sadlier and musician Frankie Gavin.
President Catherine Connolly was represented by her aide-de-camp Captain Brian Clarke.
“Brenda lived a life full to the brim, full of love, laughter, stories, kindness and mischief,” Fr Seán Donohoe began.
“She was very clear about what she wanted today: no tears, no sadness, no fuss. This is not a day for sorrow.
This is a day of celebration, the celebration of a true legend who touched the lives of so many, and left us with many, many wonderful memories.
Fricker’s friend Liz Duffy, who was described as “her rock”, echoed this sentiment: “Please, please be happy for her because that’s what she wanted: smiles and laughter and funny stories.”
Duffy said her friend wanted her to thank all her neighbours, everybody in Meath Street, and to name “her special shops”. Jaynie’s Hairdressers received a mention, who went to the hospital to do Fricker’s hair when she was ill.
Further shoutouts went to Sean from Foley’s Pharmacy, who also helped her during her illness, and to her local fish shop, where she would order “a huge piece of salmon”. Duffy also thanked the local deli, where Fricker would get treats for her dog Juno.
“She told me loads more to say, but I have to tell you, I cannot say them because you would all be going ‘Oh my God’,” Duffy said, to much laughter from the congregation.
It was the first of many glimpses into the character of the late actress and the high regard with which those present held her in.
‘A Liberty Belle at heart’
Monsignor Eoin Thynne said Fricker was happiest when she was back among the people in the Liberties.
“It was her spiritual home, and she soon discovered that she was a Liberty Belle at heart,” he said.
“The people of the Liberties are a special breed. They’re kind, they’re true, they’re warm-hearted, no pretence, and they make you feel welcome from the very first day. It’s no wonder that Brenda settled here among God’s own people.”
Thynne said Fricker was an actor true-and-true, living for art not just when the camera rolled or when the lights came up, but every single day of her life. “She loved an audience. She loved you, her friends, her family, her neighbours, her crew. You were her favourite audience of all.”
He said she won the highest honour in her profession in 1990, an Academy Award for her performance as Bridget Fagan Brown in My Left Foot. The film tells the story of an Irishman named Christy Brown, played by Daniel Day-Lewis, who was born with cerebral palsy and could control only his left foot.
But he said it was not the trophy or the recognition that really mattered to her.
What mattered most of all was bringing out the best in people. That was Brenda’s greatest gift – to see the light in others and help to make it shine bright.
The congregation heard that Fricker made Mrs Brown “one of us”.
“She played her with such truth, such heart, such tenderness that we all felt we knew her. But in truth, Brenda was like that all along. You see, she didn’t have to act kindness. She lived kindness. Her generosity was legendary. She gave freely, gladly, often quietly, expecting nothing in return. And when she saw a need, she was the first to answer it.”
Describing her as full of mischief with a contagious laugh, Thynne recalled Fricker’s golden rule – never to call or text before 12 noon. “Brenda marched to the beat of her own wonderful, joyful drum. She said it as it was. She shot from the hip.”
Concluding, he thanked her “for teaching us that the greatest prize in life is never a trophy, but the love that we have for others”.
The curtain has fallen on this life, but what a performance it was.
Filmmaker Tadhg O’Sullivan, who directed Fricker in her last film The Swallow in 2024, described her as generous, caring, honest brave and attentive.
He said he came away from his first meeting with her feeling “strangely noticed, deeply seen, closely heard”.
As I got to know Brenda, I realised that this was not unique to me or to that day. Brenda noticed; she was remarkably attentive to people and to their complexities, attuned to whatever it was that made them uniquely human.
“I began to think that it was this attention, this noticing, that had been a part of her remarkable talent as an actor.”
He said she also looked for the same level of attention back from others.
“When I saw her for the last time a few weeks ago, she joked that here, on this day, anyone whose attention wavered from the main act – maybe to comment on somebody’s outfit or to notice the beautiful stained-glass windows – might find themselves shocked back into focus by a familiar scolding voice emanating from the coffin.”
‘Ferocious’ friendship
O’Sullivan referred to the words spoken by her character in one scene in Home Alone 2: ‘Everyone wants to be seen, to be heard’.
“Hearing this line delivered in Brenda’s beautiful voice and profound humanity on a desperately sad day in July, it somehow carried a timeless truth and an honesty all of her own.”
He said her love “made you feel alive”, adding:
“She gave so much to herself in her work, in her relationships, in her encounters in Dublin, far beyond. But it sometimes feels that some essence of her is carried by everyone she touched in her long life.”
Her friendship was described by Virginia Gilbert as “ferocious” and “unlike any other I have ever known or ever will again”. The filmmaker made the 2013 drama A Long Way from Home with Fricker.
“For the past 15 years, Brenda has walked beside me in my life every day. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for a few brief minutes, but right up until the last few days, there was not a day we weren’t in contact,” she told the church.
“When she loved you, she loved fully and deeply and with her whole self. Not consuming, but renewing, boosting and encouraging.”
Gilbert said while Fricker could be infuriating, stubborn and sometimes a little bit spiteful, “it was always her – the true raw essence, the essential person. Nothing hidden. There was nothing to hide.”
She recalled fond memories she shared with Fricker, her support when her mother died and when she was a new mother herself, and read from a document entitled ‘Read When Low’ which she said her late friend had written for her, and which she keeps in a prominent place on her desktop.
The moment I met Brenda, I felt that I’d come home. There’s something mysterious in that immediate sense of connection, in the depth of the bond that she offered.
“That kind of friendship, I think that’s one of God’s great gifts. It forms you. It shapes you. I’ve been forever changed by Brenda. She’s seared some of herself in me, and I’m very grateful.”
As the service came to an end, the first two beats of Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock echoed through the church and Fricker’s coffin was carried out to singing and applause, with some at the back even beginning to dance to the song.
Scenes of celebration, with laughter and mischief, seemingly just as Fricker would have wanted.
Additional reporting by Ottoline Spearman
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