Debbie Keoghan was the mother of Barry Keoghan, an Irish actor. He has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award. He was listed at number 27 on The Irish Times list of Ireland’s greatest film actors, in 2020.
Who is Debbie Keoghan?
Debbie Keoghan struggled with drug addiction throughout her adult life and died when Barry Keoghan was 12 and has revealed he prays to his mother ‘every day’ following her death 19 years ago.
Debbie died from a heroin overdose and he had no relationship with his father at the time of death. Barry revealed that losing his mother ‘wasn’t a shock’, adding ‘But oh, she was so beautiful.’
He also wears a silver bracelet that is etched with his mother’s name, keeping her memory alive. His younger brother Eric and he would often visit her in the hospital when she was sick from drugs, he continued, recalling how he would perform an Elvis dance for her. Their recently reissued album, “A Little Less Conversation,” was a hit with her.
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Barry Keoghan Childhood
The addiction of his mother caused Barry Keoghan to have a difficult upbringing. At the age of five, he and his younger brother Eric were placed in foster care and lived in thirteen different homes until moving into their aunt and grandmother’s two-bedroom flat. Barry said,
“My cousin, who I call my sister, was 15 and she gave up her bedroom for us — until five years ago she was sleeping in a room with my auntie. I owe them all so much. My family’s most concerned about my wellbeing, all the [stardom] stuff is secondary to them… But they have a good chat about it in the pub! They get their pints in.”
Though Barry was expelled from school plays for “messing around,” he struggled in school and was seen as a mischievous student. He later said that acting, after first pursuing careers in boxing and football, helped him get over some of the trauma of his upbringing.
