Maria McDermottroe

McDermottroe was born in Sligo town in the 1950s, one of four children (including writer/director Conor)^[1] of Eddie and Nora McDermottroe.^[1][4][5] Her first theatre role was in a production of The Merchant of Venice featuring Micheál Mac Liammóir and Hilton Edwards.^[6] She married John Costigan, future Executive Director of Dublin's Gaiety Theatre, in 1979,^[4] having first met in 1977.^[7] They have two children including writer Nora Costigan and actress Gina Costigan.^[8][9] They live in Dún Laoghaire.^[10]

Her character in Glenroe was introduced in 1995, as Venetia, the matriarch of the Crosby family. Venetia later divorced and married divorcé Dick Moran.^[11][12] In Pat Shortt's rural sitcom, Killinaskully, McDermottroe portrayed Mrs. Gilhooley, known for repeatedly not being "in the habit of repeating" herself,^[1][13] She played crime figure John Gilligan's wife in 2003's Veronica Guerin, a film in which her daughter Gina Costigan portrayed the wife of criminal figure John Traynor.^[14][15][1] In 2010, McDermottroe's performance in an Eska Riada production of Frank McGuinness's one-woman play Baglady in the Focus Theatre, was described by Jesse Weaver of Irish Theatre Magazine as a "measured, taught, and ultimately arresting ... portrait of an identity nearly dissolving itself".^[16]

In 2017, she played Carmel in Isobel Mahon's Boom?.^[17] Her film credits include John Huston's The Dead,^[18][19] John Erman's The Blackwater Lightship,^[20] and The Winter Lake.^[21] She was named "Best Actress", at the 2023 Milan Gold March Awards, for her role in The Carer.^[22]