Irish actress Brenda Fricker, best known for winning an Academy Award for her role in the 1989 film My Left Foot, has died at the age of 81. She became the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, and was also widely recognised for her long-running role as nurse Megan Roach in the BBC's Casualty and as the Central Park pigeon lady in Home Alone 2, making her a familiar and much-loved figure across film and television for decades.

Born in Dublin, Fricker began her career on stage and in early Irish and British television, including the soap opera Tolka Row and Coronation Street, before winning the best supporting actress Oscar in 1990 for playing Daniel Day-Lewis's mother in My Left Foot, beating stars such as Julia Roberts and Anjelica Huston. She later said the award had led to her being typecast and overlooked for other roles. Tributes came from her agent Phil Belfield, the US ambassador to Ireland, and Dublin's Lord Mayor, who earlier this year had proposed she be granted the freedom of the city.