She also worked with the Abbey Theatre playing, among other roles, Nora Clitheroe in the highly acclaimed production of The Plough and the Stars, opposite Aidan Kelly in 2004.
Also in this year, she was cast in one of the roles for which she would become best known: Sharon Curley in Stephen Frears' 1993 film The Snapper.
Playing the role of a young woman from a working-class Dublin family dealing with an unintended pregnancy opposite Colm Meaney, she won a British Comedy Award[1] and a best actress award at the Valladolid International Film Festival.
[1] In 1996, she joined the BBC television series Ballykissangel as Niamh Quigley, the role for which she is best known, for which she won an IFTA.
She is also a well-known voice on BBC Radio 4, having played policewoman Tina Mahon in the first four series of Baldi.