May Cluskey

Mary Elizabeth Cluskey was born in Dublin, Ireland, the daughter of Francis Cluskey and Elizabeth Millington Cluskey. Her brother Frank Cluskey was a politician, leader of the Labour Party from 1977 to 1981.{{Cite web|url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a1768|title=Frank Cluskey|last1=Dempsey|first1=Pauric J.|last2=White|first2=Lawrence William|website=Dictionary of Irish Biography - Cambridge University Press|access-date=2020-03-11}}

Cluskey was a member of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin from 1972 to 1986. Writer Thomas Kilroy remembered her as "an extraordinary comic actress".{{Cite book|last1=Chambers|first1=Lilian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99Y_V_0FLbgC&dq=May+Cluskey+actress&pg=PA243|title=Theatre Talk: Voices of Irish Theatre Practitioners|last2=Gibbon|first2=Ger Fritz|last3=Jordan|first3=Eamonn|date=2001|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-0-9534257-6-1|pages=243|language=en}} Among her roles at the Abbey were roles in The Silver Tassie (1972, 1973), The Stars Turn Red (1978) and Red Roses for Me (1980) by Seán O'Casey, Hatchet (1972){{Cite book|last=Welch|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=64kGuhailksC&dq=May+Cluskey+Abbey&pg=PA202|title=The Abbey Theatre, 1899-1999: Form and Pressure|date=2003|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-926135-2|pages=202|language=en}} and Red Biddy (1978) by Heno Magee, Pull Down a Horseman (1972) by Eugene McCabe, They Feed Christians To Lions Here, Don't They? (1972) by Francis Harvey, The Gathering (1974) and A Pagan Place (1977) by Edna O'Brien, Katie Roche (1975) by Teresa Deevy,{{Cite web|url=http://deevy.nuim.ie/items/show/336|title=Katie Roche|website=Teresa Deevy Archive|access-date=2020-03-10}} Faustus Kelly (1978), At Swim-Two-Birds (1981){{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tickets-fly-out-for-at-swim-two-birds-1.138311|title=Tickets fly out for 'At Swim-Two-Birds'|website=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2020-03-11}} and The Hard Life (1986) by Flann O'Brien, The Hostage (1981) by Brendan Behan, and in works by Oscar Wilde, Richard B. Sheridan, Oliver Goldsmith, Dion Boucicault, Henrik Ibsen, Arthur Miller, Anton Chekhov, W. B. Yeats, George S. Kaufman, John Millington Synge, and Bertolt Brecht.{{Cite web|url=https://www.abbeytheatre.ie/archives/person_detail/10685|title=Cluskey, May|website=Abbey Theatre, Abbey Archives|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}

Although Cluskey usually played supporting roles, often mothers,{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/books/the-mothering-touch-26672035.html|title=The mothering touch|website=independent|language=en|access-date=2020-03-11}} she played the title character in James Ballantyne's Sarah (1974). In 1976, she performed her one-woman show at the Gorey Arts Festival.{{Cite book|url=http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000763523|title=Gorey Arts Festival '76 [1976]. Fri. 30 July poetry & music Cyril Cusack [and] Douglas Gunn Ensemble 9pm Adm. £1...|date=1976|publisher=Funge Arts Centre|location=National Library of Ireland}} In 1982, she toured in Frank McGuinness's The Factory Girls. She also wrote two plays, Mothers (1976, with Tomás Mac Anna; a one-woman show in which she also starred),{{Cite book|last=Hunt|first=Hugh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FExC_JPEV40C&dq=May+Cluskey&pg=PA276|title=The Abbey, Ireland's National Theatre, 1904-1978 [i.e. 1979]|date=1979|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-04906-1|pages=276|language=en}} and Or By Appointment (1986).

Cluskey was also known for the roles she played in films, including Young Cassidy (1965),{{Cite book|last=Davis|first=Ronald L.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OnreBQAAQBAJ&dq=May+Cluskey+Abbey&pg=PT293|title=John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master|date=2014-12-17|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-8694-8|language=en}} Ulysses (1967),{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ban-on-ulysses-film-lifted-after-33-years-1.1124561|title=Ban on 'Ulysses' film lifted after 33 years|last=Dwyer|first=Michael|website=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2020-03-11}} and The Purple Taxi (1977).{{Cite web|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba713c870|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181026144912/http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba713c870|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 October 2018|title=May Cluskey|website=BFI|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}} On television she played Queenie Butler in the Irish soap opera Tolka Row,{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/maura-laverty-s-dublin-from-liffey-lane-to-tolka-row-1.3496281|title=Maura Laverty's Dublin: from Liffey Lane to Tolka Row|last=Kelly|first=Seamus|website=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2020-03-11}} for which she won a Jacob's Award in 1966.{{Cite web|url=https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2039/056.html|title=Hilton Edwards and May Cluskey (1966)|last=Bedell|first=Roy|date=1 December 1966|website=RTÉ Archives|language=en|access-date=2020-03-10}}

Cluskey died in Dublin in 1991, days before her 64th birthday.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/1018/012.html A photograph of May Cluskey in a scene from Strindberg's Miss Julie (1963)], by Roy Bedell, in the RTÉ Archives.
• [https://stillslibrary.rte.ie/indexplus/image/2461/032.html A photograph of May Clusky (1973)], by Ronan Lee, in the RTÉ Archives.
• Sam (May 12, 2018), [https://comeheretome.com/2018/05/12/anti-amendment-music-1982-83/ "Anti-Amendment Music (1982-83)"], Come Here to Me!, a blogpost including a photograph of May Cluskey with other performers, from a 1983 newspaper.
• {{IMDb name|id=0167358}}
• {{Find a Grave|id=132207950|name=}}; her grave is in Glasnevin Cemetery.

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Category:1927 births

Category:1991 deaths

Category:Irish stage actresses

Category:Jacob's Award winners

Category:Actresses from Dublin (city)

Category:Irish film actresses

Category:Irish television actresses