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September 17, 2025 18 mins

Irish actress Geraldine Plunkett shares her remarkable journey from school plays to becoming one of Ireland's most beloved performers across stage and screen. She reflects on her surprise entry into acting, her experiences with the Abbey Theatre, and her current role in Sheila Forsey's new play "The Memory Room."

• Started acting after being discovered by Abbey Theatre director Frank Dermody during a school production of Hamlet
• Learned acting by working alongside legendary Abbey Theatre performers like Harry Brogan and Eileen Crowe
• Found fame on television in Glenroe, written by Wesley Burrows, which came at the perfect time as her children were growing up
• Performed in numerous acclaimed theater productions including Juno and the Paycock and works by Beckett, Murphy, and McGuinness
• Currently starring as Eileen in The Memory Room, a play about secrets, memory, truth and family
• Drawn to the play's poetic language and the way it explores how past secrets might be handled differently today

Join us for The Memory Room at the St. Michael's Theatre in New Ross – a gripping new play with a wonderful script, director, and cast that promises to keep audiences on the edge of their seats.


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Aideen Ni Riada (00:03):
Welcome to the Resonate podcast with Aideen.
I'm Aideen Ni Riada and todayI'm joined by one of Ireland's
most loved actresses, GeraldinePlunkett.
You'll know her from Glenrow,the Clinic and Fair City, but
she's also had an incrediblestage career, from classics like
Juno and the Paycock and theGlass Menagerie to powerful new

(00:25):
Irish plays.
This year Geraldine stars asEileen in the Memory Room, a
brand new play by Wexfordplaywright Sheila Forsey.
I actually spoke with Sheila ona podcast episode last year, so
I'm very excited to speak withGeraldine about Sheila's new
play and find out more about howGeraldine about Sheila's new
play and find out more about howGeraldine got involved in

(00:47):
acting in the first place.
What drew you to acting allthose years ago?

Geraldine Plunkett (00:53):
Well, I was at boarding school and I was in
a couple of school plays and Iwas in Hamlet, which was on the
leaving cert.
At the time.
When I was doing the leavingand as it happened, frank
Dermody, who was a director inthe Abbey Theatre at the time,
happened to be adjudicating,quite coincidentally in this was

(01:15):
in the Ursuline in Thurles inthe town and somebody said come
in and see this.
So he came in and I auditionedfor him and that, and then I had
enough.
So I was leaving school anyway,I was in my last year and then
I went to, I had another coupleof auditions with the Abbey and
then they gave me a little partand you know, and so forth.
So that's that's.

(01:35):
The Abbey at that stage was inthe Queen's Theatre in Peirce
Street where they had movedafter the fire in 1952.
So I mean that theater is gonenow.

Aideen Ni Riada (01:47):
So that's where I'm considering any other
career at the time.

Geraldine Plunkett (01:52):
No, because I like.
I just no, I wasn't justthinking well, I'll have to do
like millions of people did, Ihave to do a short on a typing
course and get a job, and no sothat the option was acting or
typist well, it wasn't so mucheven an option.
It never entered my head for onesecond that I could be an actor
until this this happened.

(02:14):
And I mean like, if you know,if you said to me, you know,
would you like to be?
I mean I loved it, I absolutelyloved being in the school play,
adored it, but it didn't entermy head that this was in any way
a possibility.
I mean you might as well havesaid well, do you want to be a
spaceman or something?
Do you know what I mean?
It was as remote as that.
And then and then it justhappened, and very gradually,

(02:37):
and of course I learned an awfullot from all the actors I was
working with and everything else.

Aideen Ni Riada (02:43):
So that's how it happened, you know yeah, um,
I'm curious um, who influencedyou the most at that time when
you were working in the um as ayoung actress well, oh god, it's
impossible to say.

Geraldine Plunkett (02:57):
I mean there was fun.
I mean I, I was in in the eraof Harry Brogan and Eileen Crowe
were were.
I mean, eileen Crowe was one ofthe original Abbey players and
uh, I I just, and there were ahuge amount of actors there who
were really very, very good andvery experienced, fantastic.

(03:18):
And I just learned by watchingand and they'd say things to me.
I mean they would say thingslike don't do this or do that or
whatever.
You just learn by watching andworking.
And I mean Donal McCann wasthere as well at the same time,
donal and I.
May he rest in peace.
The same age Des Cave, the sameage Clive.

(03:40):
There were a whole pile ofpeople, stephen Ray, there were
lots of us that were kind of,you know, coming up together
young at that stage, and then weall went different ways and so
forth, and I got married quiteyoung, and so on, and that did
you give up acting for a whilewhen you got married and well, I
was sort of sort of on and offacting and I was kind of

(04:06):
freelance then and I marriedPather Lamb, who was in the
Abbey Theatre at the time, andour first child, pather Peter,
as we call him, his Pather wasborn in 1966.
And so I did work a lot when Iwas pregnant and then I didn't,
and it was erratic is the onlyway I could put it you know, did

(04:28):
you ever take any like formalacting training?

Aideen Ni Riada (04:33):
Did you ever find any benefit in any of that?
Not, specifically.

Geraldine Plunkett (04:37):
I mean I didn't go to an acting school
but the Abbey at that stageunder Frank Dermody did in the
afternoons sometimes have.
I suppose you could say youknow groups of groups of us for
well, workshops, school, a set,but workshops, and you know
techniques of acting and thingslike that.

Aideen Ni Riada (04:57):
Um, did you have any experience of like
self-doubt or, you know, did youfeel that was it hard for you
did?

Geraldine Plunkett (05:07):
I was.
I lived in a state of totalnerves for years and years and
years and years and years,because, having been at boarding
school, I will have a schoolanyway, having been in school
plays, which I absolutely adored, it was wonderful, loved it,
and I suddenly there, I wasthrown into a professional
company.
And you know, you just realizeyou don't know anything at all,

(05:28):
kind of thing.
So, but people were veryhelpful, but at the same time,
yes, you're so terrified thatyou're, you know, you're just
bags of nerves all the time.

Aideen Ni Riada (05:39):
Yes, I did.

Geraldine Plunkett (05:39):
I didn't have self-doubt about whether or
not I had talent.
I didn't have self-doubt aboutwhether or not I had talent.
I know this soundscontradictory, but I had
self-doubt about whether or notI was going to be good in
specific plays.
Ok, which is it?
Which, on the wider level, Ikind of did feel I had talent.
And then the specific level.
I thought, oh, I'll never dothis.

(06:00):
Do you know what I mean?

Aideen Ni Riada (06:05):
Well, each part is a new task isn't it, it is,
it is yeah.
Yeah, what role did you findthe most difficult to step into
in your career?

Geraldine Plunkett (06:12):
Oh gee, it was all of them, I think.
And in the early days in theearly days, I suppose it's hard
to say Parts, parts of roles Ithought oh, I'm comfortable with

(06:32):
this bit, but I'm terrified ofthe next bit.
So it's really very, verydifficult to say specifically
because kind of every kind ofeverything.

Aideen Ni Riada (06:43):
So at what point did you end up, you know,
auditioning or going on Irishtelevision?
Was Glenrow your first TVappearance?

Geraldine Plunkett (06:53):
Well, on and off.
I have done quite a lot oftelevision plays.
They used to do one off plays,you know, oh OK, oh yeah, they
were constantly.
So I was in on and off in quitea lot of those.
And I've done radio plays aswell.
And then when Glenrow camealong and I auditioned for that

(07:14):
like everybody else and I got it, and that was how I got into
Glenrow.

Aideen Ni Riada (07:20):
Was there any point during your time in
Glenrow where you felt like thisstoryline isn't going where I'd
like it?

Geraldine Plunkett (07:26):
to go.
All of us in the cast.
We'd sometimes say, well, isthis plausible?
Is that plausible, or could wesay this that way, the other?
But generally speaking, no,because no, as a matter of fact,
I can't really recall.
I mean, I you know, like alllong running series, there's
always something that's a littlebit implausible.
But you know, that's, that'sthe way, that's the way it is.

(07:50):
It just the big.
You know, the main thing isthat you wouldn't have
implausibilities in relation toyour character.
Okay, that's wise.
There's always something alittle bit off the wall.
That's just the nature of thekind of thing you know, to keep
everyone interested.
Um wesley burrows was the.
It came on the first one, thatwas the reorderns written by
wesley.
Then there was bracken, andthen there was Glenn Rowe and
they were all grew out of eachother, if I could put it that

(08:11):
way, and um Wesley wrote themand I mean he was just a
wonderful writer.
Lay other writers, wonderfulwriters, came in later, but for
years Wesley was the, wroteeverything and he really, and we
never had to say, oh, can wesay it this way, that way, he
just wrote so well, you know,know, for all the characters he
was marvellous.

Aideen Ni Riada (08:32):
Did he ever ask you for your input into
anything that you did?
That he wrote?

Geraldine Plunkett (08:38):
Not no, not really, but sometimes towards
after a couple of years, towardsthe end of the each series,
we'd all have meetings with thedirectors and things, and it was
very and the executivedirectors, they'd say anybody
any ideas or do you think thisor that?
And if people had, that's fine,you know, I mean the actors

(09:02):
wouldn't have a major input inthat sense, but it was just kind
of a feeling, you know, to feelthings out, you know.

Aideen Ni Riada (09:10):
Wonderful In a general way what, looking back,
what do you most cherish aboutthat time in glenro?

Geraldine Plunkett (09:17):
well, the closeness of the cast to each
other I mean that's on a person11 and the fact, course, that it
was so hugely popular.
I mean it was hugely popularand and I just and I enjoy the

(09:38):
part and the storylines and thescripts and I loved acting.
So you're in your happy place.
Well, I was just very luckyreally, you know, and it came at
a very good time.
The kids were all young myyoungest was three when I
started.
The kids were all young myyoungest was three when I
started and the and the eldest Imean even financially the older
ones were still at school, butthen they were all at college
and then there was, you know, soit was, it was great.

(09:59):
That's wonderful.

Aideen Ni Riada (10:02):
And you've performed in some amazing
theatre productions and inamazing places New York you
mentioned Jerusalem.
What stands out to you as ahighlight of your theatre
journey?

Geraldine Plunkett (10:16):
Well, playing Juno in Juno the Peacock
was great.
I was in the first productionof the House by Tom Murphy.
I was in some of FrankMcGuinness's play the most
recent actually was his versionof Tartuffe in the Abbey and
then, oh God, I loved theBeckett plays.
I liked Gerard Gallagher'splays.

(10:38):
I mean, there was masses ofstuff that I can't even remember
now and there were a sort ofsmall productions of.
There were sort of smallproductions of you know, smaller
companies.
There was one, bodlea, writtenby Paul Mercier, and I was also

(10:58):
in that, and Pilgrims as well,and Bodlea went to Poland, which
was great.
And where else did we go?
We went to various places, god.
But Paul Mercier is just agreat writer in my book, you

(11:19):
know, a great, great writer.
It's very hard to remember, tobe honest.
I'd have to sort of nearly sitdown and go through everything
that I did over the years.

Aideen Ni Riada (11:27):
When you say someone is a great writer, what
did you?
What do you mean by that?
Like?
What are?
What are you thinking?
Like?
Is it because of the way theywrite the words or the way they
put?

Geraldine Plunkett (11:37):
the story together.
It can be that, but I thinkit's also if.
If, like, a play isn't a playuntil it's performed, it's a
script until that, and if itlifts off the page and engages
the audience somehow or other.
Oh gosh, I mean, there's somany different types of good

(11:57):
writers.
Yeah, you know of great writers.
I mean, I can't.
I wish I could think of like mymind is blank.

Aideen Ni Riada (12:04):
That's fine, it's absolutely perfect.
That's fine, it's absolutelyperfect.
But that's just an interestingthing.
You've said there that if theplay is is just a script, until
it's put on stage, until it'sperformed.
Yes, yes, yeah, and sometimesit doesn't.

Geraldine Plunkett (12:18):
It mightn't read that well on the.
I mean, a play script is not anovel yeah it's, it's, uh, it
has to.
The actors have to make it comealive, as any writer will tell
you.
Really, you know, it doesn'tlive until it's performed,
whereas a book, novel can be, isliving on the page.

Aideen Ni Riada (12:39):
So you're coming to Newroz to play Eileen
in the memory room and I knowthat you came across this quite
a while ago.
Do you remember it from readingI do.

Geraldine Plunkett (12:50):
I do remember.
You see, the thing is, when weread it we didn't read the whole
play.
This, this particular festivalof scripts, was just the first
portion of potential plays, andall of the actors read these,
not extracts of plays, becausein some case the plays hadn't
even been written.
Do you know what I mean?
They were just trial things, ifyou like, read by all the

(13:14):
actors.
So I do remember, I did like itvery much and I thought, oh,
this would make an interestingplay, and obviously it has done
now.

Aideen Ni Riada (13:23):
Yes, it's exciting now that Sheila has
Eric Fraser Hayes directing,because I know he likes to get
involved with that process ofmolding things to flow and, to
you know, to really, like yousay, bring it alive.
Have you met?
You haven't met Eric yet, butyou do.
I have on Zoom, on Zoom andSheila on Zoom.

Geraldine Plunkett (13:45):
We all and Tomás Cavanagh on Zoom.
Just the four of us were a fewweeks ago.

Aideen Ni Riada (13:52):
Was there something in particular about
the play that you liked when youfirst encountered it?
I liked the language and thekind of the mystery and the fact
there were going to be secrets,which of course we didn't know
what they were, or anything likethat but the language had a
kind of a poetry about it, whichI liked as well that's so

(14:13):
interesting, and so can you tellus a little bit about Eileen,
the character you play?

Geraldine Plunkett (14:18):
well she's.
She's in a nursing home at themoment.
She's had a fall, we gather,and I mean without going into
all the plots or why are the insand outs of it and she's
obviously getting a bit confused.
But a lot of the things thatshe says you feel it's not just
ordinary dementia or potentialdementia.

(14:39):
It's kind of something deep,deep, deep inside her that she's
reliving and trying to get out.
And, as it happens, we dodiscover later on now she does
have a touch of dementia, youknow.
But obviously this deep, deep,deep, dark secret has.
It's not that that would havecaused her dementia, but because

(15:01):
, possibly because she has thedementia, it's coming out.
You know the trauma, the traumait's so interesting how we
store we store everything, don'twe?
it's like we are.

Aideen Ni Riada (15:17):
All of our past exists within us at any one
moment, and some things get, uh,transformed or understood, or
we learn a lesson and thenforgotten, maybe never to be
remembered, but anything that'sthat's lingering can be yeah,
yeah, yeah so interesting how we, how the mind works our bodies

(15:39):
actually work as well, becausewe can hold those things in our
physical body too yeah yeah, um.
So I am really excited thatsheila, who's a Wexford
playwright, is bringing her, youknow, new production to New
Ross, because she did bring aproduction to New Ross last year
as well.
When you met with Sheila, didanything strike you about her?

(16:02):
Was there anything interestingabout her that you liked?

Geraldine Plunkett (16:05):
I just thought she was really really
likeable, intelligent andinteresting about the play and I
was just looking, you know,really looking forward to it and
that Now at that stage I'd onlywhen I met them, I hadn't
really properly.
I had read the play very quicklyon the computer, which I'm not

(16:29):
very good at, to be honest.
I hate reading things oncomputers because you just you
can't go backwards and forwards.
And well, I'm sure some peoplecan, but I'm not very technical.
So, but then eventually theysent when the script was final.
Oh yeah, the script on computerwasn't finalized, you see, and
now it's finalized and they sentit to me in a hard copy.

(16:51):
So I've been reading that, youknow.

Aideen Ni Riada (16:55):
And the play.
As you mentioned there, itdeals with secrets and memory
and truth and family and themesthat touch everybody.
What do you hope audiences inNew Ross will take away from the
performance?
What do?

Geraldine Plunkett (17:08):
you hope audiences in New Ross will take
away from the performance Idon't know.
Well, first of all, I hope theyenjoy it and are gripped by it
that's the bottom line and thatthey won't sort of necessarily

(17:32):
guess too early what the ins ofit are.
And also the fact that I thinkthat the realisation that
possibly the things that happenin it, the things that happened
years ago but are revealed,possibly, we hope, might have
been dealt with differently ifit was now, you know, because
people were much more secretiveabout secrets, if I could put it

(17:52):
that way.
I mean, I can't give too much.

Aideen Ni Riada (17:53):
Yeah, there's more shame, often as well.

Geraldine Plunkett (17:55):
All of that kind of thing yeah.

Aideen Ni Riada (17:57):
Yeah, so interesting.
Is there anything you'd like tosay to people to encourage them
to to buy their tickets?

Geraldine Plunkett (18:06):
Oh well, it's going to be a great
performance and it's going to bereally gripping and lots of
secrets, and oh, it's wonderful,and we're all wonderful,
wonderful, wonderful, wonderfulscript, wonderful director,
wonderful actors.

Aideen Ni Riada (18:21):
I'm really excited for the play and I'm
really.
It's been really lovely to heara little bit about your your
beginnings as an actor as well,how things got started for you.
I know you've had an amazingjourney.
Thank you so much, Geraldine,thanks, Aideen, thanks, thank
you everyone for listening.
We'll see you again on anotherepisode of the Resonate podcast

(18:42):
with Aideen.
Goodbye.
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