Fair City actress double jobs as a pharmacist while also playing Dearbhla Molloy

And Maria admits she was delighted to throw her full weight into her main profession as a pharmacist during the pandemic in a bid to help others.

“During Covid it was a great thing to be able to get back into, for myself and then also to be able to feel you were contributing somewhat to the pandemic response, it was great,” she confirms. “ I still do days here and there.

“It works quite well because acting is never a full-time job and with pharmacy you can drift in and out a little bit. I’m really lucky to be able to do that.

“I did a degree in pharmacy in Trinity. I really liked school. I would have been pretty academic.”

Maria, who hails from Milltown Pass, Co Westmeath, but lives in Dublin with her boyfriend, admits that lockdown had difficult moments.

“The main thing for me was to be able to work during it. It was a luxury a lot of people didn’t have. It gave me a lot of purpose and working in a pharmacy is a rewarding job as well,” she notes.

Maria was headhunted to become a model while in was in college after doing a fashion show there.

She then did an acting course in Dublin’s Bowe Lane studio.

“It was a dream I harboured for a very long time. I have been modelling for years and I always enjoyed it and you’re kind of surrounded by talented and creative people,” she explains.

“And I think having a dream of being an actor and getting to know the performance aspect of modelling was probably what gave me the push to do it.”

Viewers recently saw a shocked Dearbhla discover that it was her devious boyfriend Cian Howley who posted pictures of the vegan café owner online wearing a fur coat.

“ I think it’s a huge disloyalty to Dearbhla,” she stresses. “ It’s unbelievably immature and really reactive.

"I think that he’s in a place where he is feeling emasculated, because Dearbhla is a really strong woman and I think that she knows what she wants.”