Maria Josephine Doyle Kennedy (born 25 September 1964) is an Irish singer and actress. With a singing and acting career that has spanned more than 30 years, she has established herself as one of Ireland's most prolific artists and entertainers. As an actress, she is best known for her extensive television roles as Patsy in Father Ted (1998), Catherine of Aragon in The Tudors (2007–2010), Vera Bates in Downton Abbey (2011), Siobhán Sadler in Orphan Black (2013–2017), and Jocasta Cameron in Outlander (2018–2022). More recently in 2022, she starred as the Scottish journalist Tannie Maria in the series Recipes for Love and Murder, set in the Karoo in South Africa and adapted for the screen from the book of the same name by Sally Andrew.
Doyle Kennedy has also appeared in numerous films, including The Commitments (1991), The Matchmaker (1997), The General (1998), Miss Julie (1999), Tara Road (2005), Albert Nobbs (2011), Byzantium (2012), Jupiter Ascending (2015), Sing Street (2016), and The Conjuring 2 (2016). In 2020, she was listed as number 46 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
As a singer, Doyle Kennedy has released nine solo studio albums and two live albums, alongside two albums as a member of The Black Velvet Band.
Early life
Doyle was born in Clontarf, Dublin, before moving with her parents, sister, and brother, Feargal, to Enniscorthy, County Wexford, for her father's career as a broker. They eventually settled in Bray, 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 "party pieces" and the tradition of gathering friends together with singing. Her first experience singing in public was at one of her parents' parties at the age of 13. She never considered a formal career in singing until after she graduated from Trinity College Dublin, with a joint honours degree in political science and business, and she never considered becoming an actress until after she established herself as a singer.
Music
Maria started The Black Velvet Band with her future husband, Kieran Kennedy and music quickly became a motivating force in her life. The band released their first album, When Justice Came, in 1989. Recorded 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, King of Myself, in 1992.
The Lady Sings The Blues, a compilation album featuring Doyle Kennedy alongside Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and Annie Lennox followed, and proved to be a best-selling album in 1994. It also established Doyle Kennedy in new markets throughout Europe, the U.S., and Japan. Touring Europe for the first time, she got rave reviews from The Guardian and The Times. She produced a documentary, Golden Boy, based on the life and work of Irish artist Patrick 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 Mystery Train show and for Tom Dunne on Pet Sounds. Doyle Kennedy also hosted an RTÉ musical series Borderline in the late 1980s.
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 Charm was released in 2001, following the release of the two lead singles, "Stars Above" and "Babes". She coordinated Sirens, which is a compilation album of female artists and was released in 2003. In the same year, she performed on the first series of Other Voices. She released the album Skullcover for a limited time between 2004 and 2005. The album contained her covers of songs such as "Lovesong", "Video Killed the Radio Star", and "Still in Love with You".
Doyle Kennedy then released the alternative folk album Mütter in 2007 along with accompanying singles "Fuckability" and "Forty Days". After the release of "Fuckability", Hot Press praised the single and stated that Doyle Kennedy "is one of the finest voices this country has ever produced". She was subsequently nominated in the Best Irish Female category at the 2008 Meteor Awards. An accompanying DVD album for this record was also released in the same year. Entitled The Band of Maria's, it included exclusive live material from some of Doyle Kennedy's promotional tour venues. In 2011, Doyle Kennedy and her husband Kieran released a collaboration album entitled The Storms Are on the Ocean. The album features a collection of Appalachian folk and country songs. In the same year, Doyle Kennedy released La Sirena 1992-1997, a collection of rock-oriented tracks that had been recorded prior to her solo career. Her sixth album project, the folk-infused Sing, was released in September 2012 with Warner Music Group holding distribution rights to the album within the UK. In 2014 and 2015, Doyle Kennedy released two more albums: Maria Live, an album of songs performed live at Vicar Street and Pepper Canister Church, with her husband Kieran providing the instrumentation and production; and Mütter's Daughter, an album containing unreleased and re-released tracks from the album Mütter.
Doyle Kennedy worked with her husband to create a follow-up album to Sing. In 2015, she wrote a song entitled "Pride" as a response to the Irish Marriage Referendum of 2015. She also composed a song about the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in response to international media coverage of the Ferguson unrest and other police-related violence in the United States. Both songs are confirmed to be appearing on the record. "Pride", the first single from her self-titled ninth studio album, was released on 10 June 2017, with the album itself being released on 25 September.
Irish music magazine Hot Press called her "truly one of Ireland's greatest vocalists" and one of their "best-kept secrets", while BBC Music reviewer Andy Fyfe opined that Doyle Kennedy's "transcendence sets her apart from the avalanche of female singer-songwriters". Upon its release, Nicole Byrne of Shout4Music called Sing "one of the best Irish albums of the year – if not the best" and referred to Doyle Kennedy as a "Celtic angel". Her voice has been credited as one of Ireland's national treasures.
On 4 May 2021, Doyle Kennedy released her tenth studio album, Fire on the Roof of Eden.
Acting
Doyle Kennedy's first experience with acting came in 1991 when she played Natalie Murphy in the musical comedy-drama The Commitments. Director Alan Parker recruited her, and other established singers, for the film. An image of Doyle Kennedy in character as Natalie Murphy in the film The Commitments was featured on an Irish postage stamp as part of the Ireland 1996: Irish Cinema Centenary series issued by An Post. The image also includes her The Commitments co-stars Angeline Ball as Imelda Quirke, Bronagh Gallagher as Bernie McGloughlin, and Andrew Strong as Deco Cuffe.
She continued to expand her acting platform with roles in 1997 The Matchmaker, directed by Mark Joffe; John Boorman's 1998 crime drama film, The General, Alan Bleasdale's 1999 miniseries Oliver Twist, and the 1999 British television series Queer as Folk. In 2006, she received small-screen success in the television series Hide & Seek.
In 2007 and 2008, she received widespread recognition for her role as Katherine of Aragon on the British historical fiction television series The Tudors. In 2010, Doyle Kennedy portrayed Sonya, a nanny to Dexter Morgan's son Harrison in the fifth season of the Showtime crime drama series Dexter. She also appeared on Irish screens early in 2011 on TG4's Corp & Anam in her first Irish-language acting role. Also in 2011, she joined the cast of ITV's period drama series Downton Abbey, appearing as Vera Bates, estranged…