Primary school teacher by day .. drug dealing thug in Red Rock by night
But luckily hit TV3 soap airs too late for star Mary’s young pupils
SHE’S a snarling, ruthless drug dealer in Red Rock so it might surprise soap fans that Mary Conroy is a sweet, conscientious schoolteacher in real life.
The star, 30, who has played bad girl Alice Burton for the past year, balances her acting career with educating 10-yearolds in primary school.
But she said the youngsters in her classroom do not realise they have a make-believe gangster’s moll in their midst.
Mary said: “The show is on too late for them to see on a Monday night but I’m dreading them finding out.”
In fact she confesses nobody ever recognises her from the hit TV3 show because she looks completely different in real life.
The star, from Tara, Co Meath, added: “Alice has this aggressive quiff in her hair and thicker makeup than I would wear.
“I would be a bit more warm than Alice who is always scowling.
“I would have a feisty element to my personality but not to the same extent. I would be a bit more subtle and calm.
“A lot of people who watch Red Rock and then meet me say, ‘Oh I would not have recognised you’. The hair and the clothes are different but also it’s the persona of the character. I’m a happier person.”
Red Rock fans are set to see a lot more scowls after last week’s cliffhanger when it appears Alice may have killed the local gang boss with a weight while he was trying to strangle Keith Kiely.
She and Keith have grown close in recent weeks as he has helped her with the young son she is trying to get back after he was taken into care.
Mary said: “It gets absolutely worse for Alice and Keith. All the stuff they go through draws them slightly together.
“They are bonding more which is weird when you consider he beat her up badly last season.
“They are finding themselves in a situation where they do not have anybody else.
“I absolutely love Alice because she is so interesting.
“There are so many things going on. The thing with Keith is a slow building friendship but she is weary of what happened before.
“Then there is the tension between her and Bridget, the matriarch of the Kielys, who doesn’t like Alice coming in.
“Then the stuff with her current boyfriend Mick Moran who is clearly not very nice to her but she might be using him as well so I feel there are a lot of layers to her, a lot of different aspects, and I love that and I love playing her.
“I love the way they dress her which is quite different to the way I dress.”
Alice was brought in as a guest character in season two but has now developed into a fully-fledged regular.
Mary said: “She is really feisty and
ON PLAYING ALICE BURTON
when she came in she was malicious and was out for herself and was a lot of fun to play when she was taunting Keith.
“But when they brought her back this year they fleshed out the character a little more and that has been really enjoyable.
“They have given her a back story and a son who was taken off her so there is a new vulnerability to Alice which you did not see before.
“It has been more of a challenge to play her but it has been really fun to flesh out a character in that way.
“My family and friends love it. I think because she is so brash and loud and would be quite different from my own personality people really enjoy that.
“They have got such a thrill from the fact she is so bold as brass. They have a great reaction and my mum is getting a great kick out of it.
“Before Red Rock I did two series of Ros na Run and I played a controversial enough character in that too.
“I was a prostitute who was kind of dragged in by gangsters and then someone in the village took me under his wing and got me a job in the cafe and sorted me out.”
When she came on she was malicious and out for herself
MARY CONROY