BACK TO TY: MACLEAN BURKESecuring a work experience placement can be difficult. Maclean Burke, an actor in RTÉ's Fair City, had a very different TY experience.
“I was lucky,” he says. “Our work experience stint coincided with an ad I had been cast in for Statoil, so I was able to take the week off school for this opportunity. My classmates and teachers were really supportive. Being in Transition Year provided me with the chance to pursue acting opportunities. Although we didn’t do a TY play or musical, I didn’t have to worry about taking time out.”
Burke attended St Brendan’s Secondary School in Bray, Co Wicklow, where he and his classmates were the guinea pigs for the school’s first Transition Year programme.
“It was the first time I got to travel,” he recalls. “We went to Germany which was a lot of fun. Some of my best memories are from the projects: we made things in woodwork, including 4,000 coasters in different colours.”
Burke had been acting since he was a child, but really got the bug when he went to secondary school. "I was a shy and quiet child, and my parents felt that acting would help to build my confidence. When I was 13, I got a small part in the film In the Name of the Fatherand also went for an audition with Ireland's top casting agent. I knew then where my life was headed."
Burke has played the character of Damian Halpin for 13 years on Fair City, and is looking forward to the ups and downs of future plotlines.
“Since I left school, I’ve been so lucky to have found acting jobs. I’m particularly grateful at the moment and really happy in this job. Long may it last.”
