Tributes pour in for gay Cork actor and beloved Bosco presenter Frank Twomey who passed away

Irish theatre and TV veteran Frank Twomey sadly passed away aged 68, with tributes from fans and colleagues pouring in on social media.

Ireland . Written by Beatrice Fanucci.

Photo or Irish actor Frank Twomey, who passed away with tributes pouting in, on the Bosco show.
Image: Via X - @EricHFlanagan

Tributes are pouring in after it was announced that legendary Cork actor Frank Twomey sadly passed away. The Cork-man is remembered for his long career on stage and in Irish TV, starring in iconic programmes such as Bosco, Nighthawks, Bull Island, Santa Ponsa and The Young Offenders.

News of Frank Twomey’s passing broke on Monday, December 11, when it was reported that the Cork theatre legend died following a short illness. A veteran of both stage and screen, Twomey’s career spanned from the 1980s till the early 2020s.

He is perhaps most fondly remembered for his role as the presenter of the beloved Irish children’s programme Bosco in its original run on RTÉ in the 1980s. In those years, Twomey was a gay man at a time when Irish society wasn’t as open as today, so working on Bosco came with its own considerations.

He spoke about that situation in a 2020 interview with RTÉ, saying: “They knew. I was freaked out about it because it was a different era. We’re talking the ’80s, and it had yet to be legalised, let alone same-sex marriage.”

He added, “…but it didn’t stop me from being gay. It meant that I was careful and I was very discrete because I had a government job”.

 

Bosco reflected on Twomey’s work on the show while speaking to The Echo in 2020, saying: “Frank was very funny. Sometimes, he was so funny, that he didn’t even know he was being funny himself, and you’d have to say ‘Frank, that was very funny!’

“He’s very good at telling stories. He used to tell me a lot of stories, and he was very good at acting poems as well. We were great friends!”

Other projects that made Twomey famous included appearing on RTÉ comedy Nighthawks, being the Everyman’s longtime Christmas panto dame and starring in the comedy hit Santa Ponsa.

 

One of his most iconic sketches was his “Irish Mammy” depiction of former education minister and veteran Fianna Fáil TD Mary O’Rourke on RTÉ’s Bull Island, which he was asked to perform long after the show had ended.

The hugely talented comedian also helped pen a one-man show titled Alone at Last, which he described as “an ode to Bosco and his recovery from it”.

Tributes from colleagues and fans have started to pour in since Frank Twomey’s passing was announced, with many sharing messages of gratitude and respect for the legendary Irish actor.

 

His friend and long-time collaborator, Pakie O’Callaghan, shared that he had visited Twomey the night before he died to say goodbye. “It was obvious for the last week or so that he wasn’t going to pull through this, but he battled as he always would in every aspect of his life, so bravely, but in the end he had to succumb to this very serious, lung disease that he had contracted,” he said.

Speaking to the Neil Prendeville Show on RedFM, O’Callaghan said, “Every time you would meet him, you would leave with a bounce in your step. He had that capacity to elevate peoples’ mood. He grew old but never grew up.”

 

Neil Prendeville of Red FM also paid tribute to his colleague, as he had acted with Twomey in the Everyman panto. “Frank was a super actor, very underrated, and had a wicked sense of humour,” he said.

CEO of the Everyman, Seán Kelly, shared: “We are greatly saddened to hear of the passing of Frank Twomey. A true Cork legend, he appeared on our stage many times and will be fondly remembered as the much-loved dame in The Everyman and CADA’s Christmas Panto. May he rest in peace.”

 

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