Oscar-Winning Irish Actress Brenda Fricker Dies at 81

Brenda Fricker, the first female Irish actor to win an Academy Award, has died at 81. Her agent Phil Belfield confirmed the death to the BBC. Fricker won Best Supporting Actress for playing Christy Brown's mother in My Left Foot (1989). Born in Dublin in 1945, she was also known to global audiences as the "pigeon lady" in Home Alone 2. Ireland's Tánaiste Simon Harris called her "a national treasure."