THE OSCAR-winning actress Brenda Fricker was presented with the inaugural Maureen O'Hara award at the Kerry Film Festival in Tralee at the weekend.
Her hand in a sling because of a shoulder injury, the actress made famous by My Left Footquipped to reporters the injury was to "my left shoulder, not my left foot".
She had had a painful time since falling down steps in London six months ago. She had a shoulder replacement and was unable to work in film, she said.
However "the minute" she was better she would be back in front of the cameras, she said. In the meantime she was working in radio plays.
With a steel plate in her shoulder, Fricker said she was now a bit like "a bionic woman" .
She was presented with a specially commissioned piece of pottery of joined masks representing tragedy and comedy, made by the master potter Louis Mulcahy.
The award was "an honour, a privilege, a delight," she said, following the presentation.
Some 200 people were at the Fels Point Hotel, among them Ms Fricker's relatives, Ritchie and Breda McAuliffe from Gneeveguilla near Killarney.
Maureen O'Hara wanted to be at the ceremony but was not well enough to attend, chairman of the Kerry Film Festival John Kennedy said. She had been closely involved and sent a message to the ceremony: "Brenda has displayed courage and determination throughout her career and her Oscar Winning role as Mrs Brown in My Left Footis one of the great highlights in Irish acting. I'm absolutely delighted that Brenda will accept this award and I wish her the very best in her career, in film and, most importantly, in her life," O'Hara said.
The award was presented by Jim Sheridan with whom Fricker worked on both My Left Footand The Field.