Her best-selling novel Falling for a Dancer was made into a BBC series in 1998 starring a young Colin Farrell
Purcell began writing fiction following a well-established career as a broadcaster and a print journalist. Her first novel, A Place of Stones , became an instant best-seller in Ireland and the UK. Her novel Falling for a Dancer, a romantic drama set in rural Ireland in the 1930s, was made into a four-part BBC series in 1998 starring Elisabeth Dermot Walsh, Dermot Crowley, Liam Cunningham and a young Colin Farrell.
In her wide-ranging work for RTÉ, she also presented It Says in the Papers for RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland for six years. From 2009 to 2010, she presented All About the Music on RTÉ Lyric FM. And, with other writers including Maeve Binchy, Dermot Bolger and Clare Boylan, she contributed to the Finbar’s Hotel series.
Less than two years later, she left to join the administrative staff of Aer Lingus where she discovered her passion for acting in the Aer Lingus Musical & Dramatic Society. Although planning to become an air hostess in Aer Lingus, she opted instead to join the Abbey Theatre repertory company.One of her first roles with the Abbey Theatre was as Christine opposite the late Donal McCann in Drama at Inish.
In the late 1970s, Purcell, by her own admission, had become restless and began to pursue print journalism – first with the Irish Press and later with the Sunday Tribune. In 1979, Purcell and Kevin Healy, then news features editor in RTÉ, had become a couple and he encouraged her to follow her instinct and join the vibrant new team of journalists at the re-launched Sunday Tribune edited by Vincent Browne.
Over the years, Purcell served on various boards including at the Abbey Theatre, the National Millennium Committee and the board of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority and the Central Bank.Loyal and supportive to her sons throughout their adult lives and a constant companion to “the love of her life” Kevin Healy, Purcell made friends easily.
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