{"id":24724,"date":"2022-01-09T09:10:47","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T14:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24724"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:10:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T14:10:50","slug":"maria-doyle-kennedy-legendary%e2%80%88star-of-song-television-and-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/?p=24724","title":{"rendered":"Maria Doyle Kennedy: Legendary\u2008Star Of Song, Television And Cinema"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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BBC\u2008America<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now Maria Doyle Kennedy is an entertainer that I have admired for a long long time as a singer and as an actress who has appeared in quite a few movies. I do not know her personally but I do know her husband Kieran Kennedy from my music days when I played in Cork as he always turned up for our gigs being an admirer of our band Sunset. Now he has gone on to bigger and better things with his band Black Velvet along with his wife Maria who also performs with the band as well as solo, so now you know where her name Kennedy came from, her husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here I am going to give you a little bit of history on this fabulous singer and actress who has been a super star for many years. With a singing and acting career that has spanned more than 30 years, she has established herself as one of Ireland\u2019s most prolific artists and entertainers. As an actress, she is best known for her extensive television roles as Patsy in\u00a0\u201cFather Ted\u201d\u00a0(1998),\u00a0Catherine of Aragon\u00a0in\u00a0\u201cThe Tudors\u201d\u00a0(2007\u20132010),\u00a0Vera Bates\u00a0in\u00a0\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d\u00a0(2011), Siobhan Sadler in\u00a0\u201cOrphan Black\u201d\u00a0(2013\u20132017), and Jocasta Cameron in\u00a0\u201cOutlander\u201d\u00a0(2018\u2013present). Doyle Kennedy has also appeared in numerous films, including\u00a0\u201cThe Commitments\u201d\u00a0(1991),\u00a0\u201cThe Matchmaker\u201d\u00a0(1997),\u00a0\u201cThe General\u201d\u00a0(1998),\u00a0\u201cMiss Julie\u201d\u00a0(1999),\u00a0\u201cTara Road\u201d\u00a0(2005),\u00a0\u201cAlbert Nobbs\u201d\u00a0(2011),\u00a0\u201cByzantium\u201d\u00a0(2012),\u00a0\u201cJupiter Ascending\u201d\u00a0(2015),\u00a0\u201cSing Street\u201d\u00a0(2016), and\u00a0\u201cThe Conjuring 2\u201d\u00a0(2016). In 2020, she was listed as number 46 on\u00a0The Irish Times\u00a0list of Ireland\u2019s greatest film actors. As a singer, Doyle Kennedy has released eleven albums and fourteen singles.
She was born in\u00a0Clontarf, Dublin, before moving with her parents, sister, and brother, Feargal, to\u00a0Enniscorthy, County Wexford, for her father\u2019s career as a broker. They eventually settled in\u00a0Bray, County Wicklow, and she still claims a close, personal connection with the town. She began singing early in life and comes from a family that appreciates \u201c”party pieces\u201d and the tradition of gathering friends together with singing. At the age of 9 or 10, she would go to a friend\u2019s house every Sunday evening to listen to the top-20 broadcast on the radio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her first experience singing in public was at one of her parents\u2019 parties at the age of 13. She recalls that, as a teenager, her mother was able to gauge her mood according to how much singing she was doing. When she was 14, she was given a\u00a0Billie Holiday\u00a0album that was the first piece of music to affect her emotionally. She was then opened up to artists such as\u00a0Patti Smith,\u00a0Radiohead, and\u00a0Low, artists whom she still cites as some of her favorites.
She never considered a formal career in singing until after she graduated from\u00a0Trinity College, Dublin, with a\u00a0joint honors\u00a0degree in political science and business, and she never considered becoming an actress until after she established herself as a singer.
Maria Doyle Kennedy joined a band while still in college, performing with\u00a0Hothouse Flowers\u00a0during the band\u2019s early years in the mid-1980s. She appeared on their 1987 single \u201cLove Don\u2019t Work This Way\u201d. She left the band shortly after to join The Black Velvet Band with her future husband, Kieran Kennedy. They formed originally to enter a Slogadh competition, that they eventually won, but music quickly became a motivating force in her life. The band released their first album\u00a0\u201cWhen Justice Came\u201d in 1989.\u00a0Recorded in Los Angeles in 1989, it reached number four on the Irish charts, and is ranked among the best Irish albums of the late 1980s. She then united with producers Clive Langer and Allen Winstanley to record her second Black Velvet Band album,\u00a0\u201cKing of Myself\u201d, in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Lady Sings The Blues\u201d, a compilation album featuring Doyle Kennedy alongside\u00a0Aretha Franklin,\u00a0Billie Holiday, and\u00a0Annie Lennox\u00a0followed, and proved to be a best-selling album in 1994. It also established Doyle Kennedy in new markets throughout Europe, the US, and Japan. Touring Europe for the first time, she got rave reviews from\u00a0The Guardian\u00a0and\u00a0The Times of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She produced a documentary,\u00a0\u201cGolden Boy\u201d, based on the life and work of Irish artist\u00a0Patrick Scott, for which she specifically created the production company Mermaid Films. She has appeared as a broadcaster on Irish television, filling in for John Kelly on his\u00a0\u201cMystery Train\u201d\u00a0show and for Tom Dunne on\u00a0\u201cPet Sounds\u201d. Doyle Kennedy also hosted an RT\u00c9 musical series\u00a0\u201cBorderline\u201d\u00a0in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After releasing music with The Black Velvet Band, Doyle Kennedy left the group to pursue a solo career in music. In 2001, Doyle Kennedy released music on Mermaid Records, a label she founded herself in 2000. Her debut solo album\u00a0\u201cCharm\u201d\u00a0was released in 2001, following the release of the two lead singles, \u201cStars Above\u201d and \u201cBabes\u201d. She coordinated\u00a0\u201cSirens\u201d, which is a compilation album of female artists and was released in 2003. In the same year, she performed on the first series of\u00a0\u201cOther Voices\u201d. She released the album\u00a0\u201cSkullcover\u201d\u00a0for a limited time between 2004 and 2005. The album contained her covers of songs such as \u201cLovesong\u201d, \u201cVideo Killed the Radio Star\u201d and \u201cYou\u201d. Doyle Kennedy then released the alternative folk album\u00a0\u201cMutter\u201d\u00a0in 2007 along with accompanying singles \u201cFuckability\u201d and \u201cForty Days\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the release of \u201cFuckability\u201d,\u00a0Hot Press\u00a0praised the single and stated that Doyle Kennedy \u201cis one of the finest voices this country has ever produced\u201d. She was subsequently nominated in the Best Irish Female category at the\u00a02008 Meteor Awards.\u00a0An accompanying\u00a0DVD\u00a0album for this record was also released in the same year. Entitled\u00a0\u201cThe Band of Maria\u2019s\u201d, it included exclusive live material from some of Doyle Kennedy\u2019s promotional tour venues.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Doyle Kennedy and her husband Kieran released a collaboration album entitled\u00a0\u201cThe Storms Are on the Ocean\u201d. The album features a collection of Appalachian folk and country songs. In the same year, Doyle Kennedy released\u00a0\u201cLa Sirena 1992-1997\u201d, a collection of rock-oriented tracks that had been recorded prior to her solo career. Her sixth album project, the folk-infused\u00a0\u201cSing\u201d, was released in September 2012 with\u00a0Warner Music Group\u00a0holding distribution rights to the album within the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2014 and 2015, Doyle Kennedy released two more albums:\u00a0\u201cMaria Live\u201d, an album of songs performed live at\u00a0Vicar Street\u00a0and\u00a0Pepper Canister Church, with her husband Kieran providing the instrumentation and production; and\u00a0\u201cMutter\u2019s Daughter\u201d, an album containing unreleased and re-released tracks from the album\u00a0\u201cMutter\u201d. She then worked with her husband to create a follow-up album to\u00a0\u201cSing\u201d.\u00a0In 2015, she wrote a song entitled \u201cPride\u201d as a response to the\u00a0Irish Marriage Referendum of 2015. She also composed a song about the deaths of\u00a0Michael Brown\u00a0and\u00a0Eric Garner\u00a0in response to international media coverage of the\u00a0Ferguson unrest\u00a0and other police-related violence in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish music magazine\u00a0Hot Press\u00a0called her \u201ctruly one of Ireland\u2019s greatest vocalists\u201d and one of their \u201cbest-kept secrets\u201d,\u00a0while\u00a0BBC Music\u00a0reviewer Andy Fyfe opined that Doyle Kennedy\u2019s \u201ctranscendence sets her apart from the avalanche of female singer-songwriters\u201d.\u00a0Upon its release, Nicole Byrne of Shout4Music called\u00a0\u201cSing\u201d\u00a0\u201cone of the best Irish albums of the year – if not the best\u201d and referred to Maria Doyle Kennedy as a \u201cCeltic angel\u201d. Her voice has been credited as one of Ireland\u2019s national treasures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doyle Kennedy\u2019s first experience with acting came in 1991 when she played Natalie Murphy in the musical comedy-drama\u00a0\u201cThe Commitments\u201d. Director\u00a0Alan Parker\u00a0recruited her, and other established singers, for the film. An image of Doyle Kennedy in character as Natalie Murphy in the film\u00a0\u201cThe Commitments\u201d\u00a0was\u00a0featured on an Irish postage stamp\u00a0as part of the\u00a0Ireland 1996: Irish Cinema Centenary\u00a0series issued by\u00a0An Post. The image also includes her\u00a0\u201cThe Commitments\u201d\u00a0co-stars\u00a0Angeline Ball\u00a0as Imelda Quirke,\u00a0Bronagh Gallagher\u00a0as Bernie McGloughlin, and\u00a0Andrew Strong\u00a0as Deco Cuffe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She continued to expand her acting platform with roles in 1997s \u201cThe Matchmaker\u201d, directed by Mark Joffe;\u00a0John Boorman\u2019s 1998 crime drama film,\u00a0\u201cThe General\u201d,\u00a0Alan Bleasdale\u2019s 1999\u00a0miniseries\u00a0\u201cOliver Twist\u201d, and the 1999 British television series\u00a0\u201cQueer as Folk\u201d. In 2006, she received small-screen success in the television series\u00a0\u201cHide & Seek\u201d. In 2007 and 2008, she received widespread recognition for her role as\u00a0Catherine of Aragon\u00a0on the\u00a0British\u00a0historical fiction\u00a0television series\u00a0\u201cThe Tudors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, Doyle Kennedy portrayed\u00a0Sonya, a nanny to\u00a0Dexter Morgan\u2019s son Harrison in the fifth season of the\u00a0Showtime\u00a0crime drama series\u00a0\u201cDexter\u201d. She also appeared on Irish screens early in 2011 on TG4\u2019s\u00a0\u201cCorp & Anam\u201d\u00a0in her first Irish-language acting role. Also in 2011, she joined the cast of\u00a0ITV\u2019s period drama series\u00a0\u201cDownton Abbey\u201d, appearing as Vera Bates, estranged wife of the valet of the Earl of Grantham. In the same year, she also played a small role as a maid, Mary, in the period drama film\u00a0\u201cAlbert Nobbs\u201d, alongside American actress\u00a0Close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 2012, Doyle Kennedy played a leading role in the\u00a0ITV\u00a0miniseries\u00a0\u201cTitanic\u201d\u00a0and also appeared beside fellow Irish actress\u00a0Saoirse Ronan\u00a0in\u00a0Neil Jordan\u2019s\u00a0horror\u00a0fantasy\u00a0film\u00a0\u201cByzantium\u201d, which premiered at the\u00a0Festival. In 2013, Doyle Kennedy began co-starring in the Canadian science fiction thriller series\u00a0\u201cOrphan Black\u201d, as Siobh\u00e1n Sadler. She officially decided on joining the series when showrunner\u00a0Graeme Manson\u00a0mentioned that\u00a0Patti Smith\u00a0was the inspiration for her character. The series received critical acclaim, earning multiple accolades. She received a\u00a0Canadian Screen Award\u00a0for her role, from two nominations, and remained part of the main cast from the\u00a0first season\u00a0until the series\u2019\u00a0season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She reprised her leading role as M\u00e1ir\u00e9ad Mhic Iarn\u00e1in for the second series of\u00a0\u201cCorp & Anam\u201d\u00a0in 2014. She also appeared as Jupiter\u2019s mother Aleksa in\u00a0The Wachowskis\u2019 2015 science fiction action film\u00a0\u201cJupiter Ascending\u201d.\u00a0
On 12 April 2016, Doyle Kennedy was announced as having been cast as\u00a0Roisin Kelly\u00a0in the 2017 six-part miniseries\u00a0Redwater. In 2017, Doyle Kennedy was cast as Jocasta MacKenzie Cameron in the fourth season of the\u00a0Starz\u00a0historical romantic drama series\u00a0\u201cOutlander\u201d, which is an adaptation of\u00a0novel series of the same name\u00a0by\u00a0Diana Gabaldon. The season premiered in 2018 and she continued in the role for multiple seasons.\u00a0Also in 2018, she starred as George Cusack in the second season of the\u00a0RT\u00c9 One\u00a0drama series\u00a0\u201cStriking Out\u201d, in which she appears as a series regular. In 2020, Doyle Kennedy was cast as Illa in the epic fantasy drama series\u00a0\u201cThe Wheel of Time\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She first met musician Kieran Kennedy at a gig she was performing, and he subsequently invited her to sing on one of his demos. This event turned into a first date for the couple, and they married soon after in 1988.
The couple have four sons, including one of Doyle Kennedy\u2019s sons from a previous relationship; they are Lewis, Jesse James, Daniel, and Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She states that music is what still keeps her and Kieran together after nearly 30 years of marriage. Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kieran, and their four sons live together in Dublin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maria Doyle Kennedy considers music to be the most integral aspect of her life, and she prefers her musical endeavors over her acting ones. She states: \u201cI do not miss acting when I am not doing it, but I would not spend a day without singing, even to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She still experiences nerves before she sings on stage, but she has learned ways to control them through pacing and breathing techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When acting, Doyle Kennedy is attracted to characters who are multifaceted and able to display not only a loving, motherly side, but also a fierce, determined side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She draws musical influence from jazz musician Billie Holiday, American country singer\u00a0John Prine\u00a0(with whom she went on to duet on her\u00a0\u201cSing\u201d\u00a0album), and fellow Irish folk musician\u00a0D\u00f3nal Lunny, a close personal friend of hers, and has been referred to as \u201can Irish Patti Smith.\u201d Additionally, she draws acting influences from her personal heroes\u00a0Maggie Smith\u00a0and\u00a0Penelope Wilton, with whom she starred on\u00a0Downton Abbey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irish artist Patrick Scott, one of Doyle Kennedy\u2019s dearest personal friends, also served as one of her biggest inspirations for her life, in general. She admired his ability to allow his life to inform his art and found inspiration in his sentiment that improvement, and not degradation, can still happen in old age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Maria some performer or what? The word you\u2019re looking for is just brilliant and she\u2019s got a lot more to give us. So, look out for Maria Doyle Kennedy on her next tour when this pandemic is over and gone forever as you won\u2019t be disappointed by how great she really is. <\/p>\n

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