She has appeared extensively in the plays of Irish Playwright Brian Friel. On television, she has appeared in Waking the Dead, Foyle's War, Midsomer Murders, New Tricks, and the 1960s RTÉ soap opera Tolka Row.

In 1991 she was in the company that performed Brian Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, about the sad lives of a group of sisters in pre-war rural Ireland, on Broadway, and was nominated for a Tony award, losing to co-star Bríd Brennan, although her role went to the Kathy Burke in the film version. She has appeared in such television plays and series, as Michael Palin's wife in the GBH and in New Tricks, Midsomer Murders, and Sex, the City and Me.

In 2009, she joined the cast of Coronation Street as the mother of Michelle Connor (Kym Marsh), succeeding Sorcha Cusack who played the part of Helen Connor the year before.

She reprised her role for two episodes in 2015. Her film credits include Tara Road, The Blackwater Lightship and This Is the Sea. In April 2017, she will appear in The Ferryman at the Royal Court Theatre, ahead of a transfer to the Gielgud Theatre in the West End.