Fair City star Bryan Murray has told the RTÉ Guide that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease three years ago and hopes going public will help others.
The 73-year-old, who plays Bob on the RTÉ One show, told the magazine that it is "not the end of the world".
"I wish I didn't have it, but I do have it, and I'm still here. I have it and I am working with it," he said.
Murray, who also starred in RTÉ's adaptation of Strumpet City and UTV/RTÉ co-production The Irish R.M., was joined for the interview by his real-life and onscreen partner Úna Crawford O'Brien, who plays Fair City's Renee, as they recounted events leading up to his diagnosis.
"As a younger actor, I would get a script, it would be four pages and within 15 minutes I would know the lines," Murray said. "As I got older, I couldn't do that any longer."
"We were both touring with a play, Halcyon Days by Deirdre Kinahan," Crawford O'Brien continued. "I noticed Bryan's lines were difficult for him. He'd get irate if I were to say anything, so later, on holidays, I asked if he'd get his memory checked. He had the tests and got the diagnosis."
Murray said Fair City "got rid of one of my biggest fears" by ensuring he could continue to play Bob.
"The producer of Fair City, Brigie de Courcy, said they'd do anything they could to support me. When it first started, my character would be looking at a laptop, reading a newspaper, or I might have had a clipboard, but it would be the script in front of me. So, even if your memory is gone down the pan, your ways of coping with it are still intact."
Murray told the RTÉ Guide that he lives in the present.
"I really wanted to let it be known this was my situation and that for anyone who's been recently diagnosed, there is an answer to it. It's not the end of the world. It's the changing of your world, but not the end."
"My concern is for people who are at the beginning stages," he continued. "There are people out there to support you, there'll be some kind of a medical breakthrough down the line, and I really want to stress that there's help and there's hope."
Next April, Murray will be back on the stage where his career began - Dublin's Peacock Theatre - in a new play written for him by Deirdre Kinahan.
"It's about a fictional elderly actor, Seán," said Crawford O'Brien, "who has written stories and letters to himself before he had Alzheimer's. Bryan will read the letters, which is ideal, and Seán as a young man will be played by another actor."
The full interview is in the new issue of the RTÉ Guide - on sale now.
For more on the Irish Dementia Working Group (IDWG), an advocacy group of people living with dementia that is supported by the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland, visit: alzheimer.ie or call the National Helpline: 1800-341 341.
Alzheimer's Memory Walk takes place on Sunday, 18 September 18, during World Alzheimer's Month 2022. For more, see: memorywalk.ie.
Bryan Murray is the guest on the first episode of the new series of Keys to My Life on Sunday 4 September on RTÉ One at 8:30pm.
