Dervla Kirwan is an Irish actress famous for roles in British television shows such as Ballykissangel and Goodnight Sweetheart. Kirwan was born in Churchtown, Dublin, Ireland. Her father was an insurance broker and her mother was a French and Latin teacher.

She won London critical acclaim in 1988 for her 'firm but fragile' performance as the factory girl Linda in A Handful of Stars, the Bush Theatre premiere of the first play in Billy Roche's Wexford Trilogy. In 1992, again at the Bush, she starred in a revival of the complete trilogy.

She got her television break in the 1991 BBC Scotland production of A Time To Dance, adapted by Melvyn Bragg from his own novel, playing Bernadette Kennedy. In the same year she also appeared in the play Water Music at the Cockpit Theatre written by award-winning playwright Lyndon Morgans (singer-songwriter with the Welsh folk noir band Songdog).

In a busy 1992 she also starred in Hush by April de Angelis at the Royal Court Theatre, while January 1994 found her playing in Peter Hall's seasonal production of Georges Feydeau's farce An Absolute Turkey at the Globe Theatre

Kirwan briefly appeared in Casualty, and in the first three series of Goodnight Sweetheart alongside Nicholas Lyndhurst before leaving where her role as 'Phoebe Sparrow' was recast to Elizabeth Carling. In 1996 she sang with Dustin the Turkey on his cover of "Fairytale of New York" for his album Faith of Our Feathers. In 1999 she appeared in a made for TV movie The Greatest Store in the World.

For 23 episodes, from 1996-1998, she appeared in Ballykissangel in the role of Assumpta Fitzgerald. Assumpta is the landlady of Ballyk's only pub, Fitzgeralds, and is no friend of the church - until Father Peter Clifford (Steven Tomkinson) is posted to the village from his previous parish in Manchester.

Kirwan starred in School for Seduction, a 2004 film. She also starred in BBC 1 crime drama series 55 Degrees North which aired in 2004. She returned for a second series in 2005. The series was shown in the U.S. under the title The Night Detective. In 2005 she also appeared on the Lyttelton stage at the National Theatre in the role of Alice in Brian Friel's Aristocrats.