Props to Dervla for her take on middle age

IT’S rare for an actress to be an ambassador for aging – and who could blame her, when the accumulation of years usually causes her career to fall off a cliff, unless her name is Meryl Streep or Judi Dench?

Yet Dervla Kirwan, right, puts in a convincing performance on the joys of turning 50, saying she feels more ‘confident, optimistic and energetic’ now than she did 25 years ago.

There was a terrific buzz about Dervla when she was plucked from obscurity aged 15 to land a major role in the TV series Troubles, and later played the doe-eyed barmaid in Ballykissangel. It says a lot for the perspective gained by middle age that she is more optimistic today than at the outset of her career, when she was the talk of the town.