She was one of Ireland's most popular actresses and was, at her death, recognisable to television viewers as Eunice Dunstan, a gossip in Fair City on RTÉ One.

She appeared in a number of other films, including Ron Howard's Far and Away, Da, Footfalls, Home is the Hero and just before her death, How About You.

More recently, O'Hara was best known for appearing in the popular Irish television soap opera Fair City, broadcast on RTÉ One.

O'Hara lived most of her life in Monkstown, Dublin, with a stay in London, with her husband, poet and architect Francis J. Barry.

[3] Joan O'Hara Barry (she kept her maiden name as her stage name) died in Dublin on 23 July 2007 of complications from a blood clot, aged 76.