The comedian and actor Niall Toibin was born in 1929 to an Irish-speaking family, a trait that secured him work in his later career (including 1978’s Poitin, the first feature film to be filmed entirely in the language). But he was no slouch in English, and after a brief spell in the Irish civil service he carved out a position as one of Ireland’s leading character actors, familiar to the wider public for roles in the likes of Ryan’s Daughter, Veronica Guerin and, for great swathes of Sundays in the late 1990s, as Father Frank MacAnally in Ballykissangel.
Niall Toibin
21 November 1929 – 13 November 2019
Died aged 89 (unique pick)