Castlewellan actor adds her opposition to disposal plans

Castlewellan actor adds her opposition to disposal plans

13 February 2019

SHE may have left the Mourne Mountains to pursue an acting career on stage and screen but the Mournes have not left Niamh McGrady.

The Castlewellan-born actress has spoken of her horror at recent media stories which claim the Government is looking to the Mournes as a possible location to store nuclear waste.

An area of granite bedrock running from Slieve Gullion in Newry to the Mourne is being considered — amongst other locations — as suitable for an underground disposal facility, according to a preliminary report by Radioactive Waste Management (RWM), a UK State-owned company.

Other locations include an area of rock between Omagh and Cookstown, a location between Belfast and Larne, areas around Coleraine, Co Londonderry, and Ballymoney and Ballycastle, in Co Antrim.

Niamh, who has starred in Holby City and The Fall, called for all local people to lend their support as Newry, Mourne and Down District Council passed an emergency motion last week unanimously opposing any future facility.

“I am absolutely horrified to hear about proposals to host nuclear waste in the Mourne area,” said Niamh, who now lives in London.

“Mourne is an area of outstanding natural beauty, which tourists and local people adore the area alike. 

“We do not create nuclear energy here, so why should we be treated as a dumping ground? We will all have to pull together to ensure that this travesty absolutely cannot happen.” 

The Mournes are particularly beloved by the actor, who was born and reared on the Bunkers Hill area of Castlewellan.

She married her husband, Dan, close to Spelga Dam just last August and regularly walks in the Mournes when she is home.

The 36 year-old also admitted to often feeling “emotional” when it came to Mournes as she was interviewed on the ‘Eamonn Mallie: Face to Face with…’ series for UTV last night.

Apart from giving her viewpoint on her support of the 50/50 movement, which calls for equal representation of women in all areas of Hollywood by 2020, Niamh also opened up about her own issues with mental health.

She told Mallie: “I have experienced anxiety and depression off and on since my teens. It’s something I have always had to be aware of in my own life. I feel very strongly that there are issues in Northern Ireland that aren’t being addressed as far as mental health is concerned.”

A former pupil of St Malachy’s Primary School in Castlewellan, Niamh’s difficulties compounded after leaving Assumption Grammar School in Ballynahinch. A talented actor, who shone in the school’s theatre productions, she applied for and got a place at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Niamh was fortunate that while not academically minded, she found that drama, theatre studies and English always came “naturally” to her in school.

The youngest of five siblings, Niamh says that she had always wanted to leave Castlewellan for “an adventure”. But she did not realise that her living in Cardiff, away from family and friends, would take such a toll on her.

“I was just very, very homesick because our experiences in Northern Ireland were so unique and I didn’t have anyone that I could explain that to,” she said.

“I felt emotionally unsupported. I felt very much like fish out of water as I was surrounded by a lot of very wealthy people and I struggled to connect with them. I was longing for the familiarity and the closeness, and the craic of home. My homesickness lasted for many years, it didn’t just go away. 

“Every time I went home for Easter or Christmas I was in floods of tears going  back to the airport but yet I made myself do it, nothing nor nobody else was forcing me to do it.”

She went gone to appear alongside actors such as Sir Patrick Stewart of Star Trek fame in an acclaimed production Macbeth which played London’s West End and New York’s Broadway, as well as former X-Files star Gillian Anderson and 50 Shades heart-throb Jamie Dornan in the psychological murder drama The Fall. 

Niamh is currently working on two film projects and says that as a newly married woman, her professional and personal life is going great.

However, she maintains her mental health by practicing yoga and mediation and feels it is important to be upfront about having had issues.

She explained: “I don’t see a problem talking about mental health because I don’t like that it’s still taboo. If it helps one person seek help, then that’s great.

“People could be sitting with mental problems and they don’t know it. Because that’s what anxiety and depression do, they sneak on you and it really starts to alter your view of the world without you noticing.

“Over time with mediation you can be in control of your mind. It does not have to be in control of you. It’s easier said that done as it’s a long and slow process but it’s absolutely possible.”

While she has excelled in support roles such as the policewoman in The Fall and a nurse in Holby City, Niamh has her eyes set on being centre stage and  “playing a really bad person” in the future.

“I really want to play the evil person in something. I think it would be fun as there’s so much you can do with it,” she said.