BONNIE O'REILLY:BONNIE O'REILLY, who has died aged 90, was an accomplished actor and broadcaster and a figure well known in the Irish antiques trade through her husband John, an expert in Irish silver.
Born Eileen Mary Fagan in Dartmouth Square, Dublin, she was one of the five children of Bernard Goulding Fagan and his wife Kathleen Brady. An early indication of her later success came when, as an infant, she had won a Sunlight products Bonny Baby competition, from which originated the name Bonnie, by which she would be known for the rest of her long and interesting life.
The Fagans were well established in Dublin’s civic and musical society. Her grandfather, John Joseph Fagan, was a gifted violinist, and his wife, Maureen Agnes Goulding, was a distinguished vocalist and music teacher, and their daughter Annie was a noted harpist.
John Joseph was also a composer of sacred music, and frequently worked with the North Richmond Street Choir for performances at the Catholic University Church on St Stephen’s Green.
Bonnie’s father, Bernard Goulding Fagan, was no less talented, having obtained a professorship in chemistry by the age of 22. He was the Dublin city analyst for 35 years.
It was within this high-achieving environment that Bonnie Fagan was raised. As a schoolgirl she boarded at Loreto Abbey in Rathfarnham, where she enjoyed English drama and poetry and was a keen sportswoman.
At the age of 19, she made her way into the world of performing arts, with a role in the 1937 Dublin premiere of Joseph M Croft’s Doomed Cuchulain, described as the first attempt to weave Celtic dance, music and legend into a ballet of a completely Irish pattern.
The following year, she broadcast for the first time, reading the script of a series of programmes dedicated to the lives of great Irish nuns, including Mother Margaret Aylward and Nano Nagle.
In November 1939, she appeared at the Peacock Theatre in the Lamar Productions presentation of Dodie Smith’s popular comedy, Call It a Day. The Irish Times critic praised her performance, describing her as “a charming actress with a particularly pleasing speaking voice”.
By 1940, she had established herself sufficiently to be selected by the Abbey Theatre’s director, Louis D’Alton, to be in the cast for the theatre’s first national tour. On it, she joined the likes of Maureen Delaney and Fred Johnson, as well as other talented newcomers such as Eithne Dunne, Brian O’Higgins and Gerry Healy.
In that year, she also appeared in the Abbey Theatre presentation of Olga Fielden’s Three To Go, playing alongside Ginnette Waddell, Ria Mooney, Sheila Ward and a young Dan O’Herlihy.
By March 1941 she had joined Lord Longford’s Longford Productions, and appeared at the Gate Theatre in Christine Longford’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, in the starring role as Jane Bennett. Here she shared the stage with John Izon, Ann Penhallow, Hamlyn Benson and Carl Bonn. Later that year, she was back on the stage of the Gate Theatre in JM Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton.
Over succeeding years, she played in numerous Gate and Abbey productions, including Sheridan’s The School For Scandal (1942), Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (1943) and Austin Clarke’s The Son of Learning (1945).
The following year, Bonnie met her life partner, Sean O’Reilly of Clontarf – better known to many as the owner of one of Dublin’s finest antique shops, O’Reilly’s of South Anne Street. She married him a year later.
Together they had five daughters, but Bonnie did not abandon completely her career outside her family. She was a regular contributing writer to Hugh and Nula McLoughlin’s Creation magazine.
In 1962, with her now brother-in-law, Brendan Smith, she became the director of the Brendan Smith Academy’s new modelling section, overseeing courses for adults and children in “fashion, photographic and television modelling, grooming and self-improvement”.
During the early 1960s she hosted several RTÉ radio sponsored programmes, including A Woman’s Word, often scripting them with her friend, the journalist Ruth Kelly. On RTÉ television she featured in the magazine programme Home for Tea, with Monica Sheridan, and in RTÉ’s Cover Story, hosted by John Skehan.
Throughout their marriage, Bonnie was a great supporter of John’s fine art and antiques business. He was the Irish Antique Dealers Association representative in CINOA, the European Fine Art Institute.
After John’s death in 1994 she was honoured and delighted to be made an honorary member of the association, which John had co-founded with Gerry Kenyon and which was for many years chaired by George Stackpoole.
Bonnie O’Reilly showed during her long life a deep strength of character and a tenacious ability to adapt and endure. She had a great sense of fun, and an infectious sense of occasion. She was loving, kind, thoughtful, faithful, a romantic and a woman of faith.
Besides John her husband, she was predeceased by her eldest daughter Richella, who she supported through her life-long disability and final illness. She is survived by four daughters, Romilly, Clodagh, Fiona and Melanie, as well as by Angela Graham, her longtime house manager and carer at her Mount Merrion family home for 50 years.
Bonnie O’Reilly: born December 16th, 1918; died October 31st, 2009