Life
Aafter the break-up of her marriage in 1969 she moved to Dublin, where she would record her first album 'Bernelle on Brecht and...' which was released in 1977.
In 1978, she appeared Off Broadway in New York City in the American premiere of Brecht's 'Downfall of the Egotist Johann Fatzer', in which she sang original ballads sung composed by Tony Award-winning composer/arranger, Bruce Coughlin.
After moving to Dublin and meeting the architectural historian Maurice Craig she was able to use her personality and experience to help and encourage others as director, performer or confidante. She threw herself into many causes close to her heart, some, such as women in media, with wider concerns than theatre.
1985 she released her second album 'Father's Lying Dead on the Ironing Board' which was voted the strangest LP of the year by the New Musical Express. This was followed in 1990 by her last release, 'Mother,The Wardrobe is full of Infantrymen'. The Fun Palace, her autobiography, was published in 1995.
She was told she had six months to live, but she refused to pay any attention to this. However, by the time she played her last role, a dying woman in a film called 'Still Life', which was shown for the first time in March 1999, she knew she was indeed dying; characteristically she did not tell her fellow actors.
She died 15 February 1999. The funeral was a great Rock’n Roll event with performances by Gavin Friday, Mary Coughlan and others; the church choir sang ‘Mac the Knife’.
In the London Independent obituary, David Alexander says of her: "anyone who ever met her could not fail to be impressed by her courage, energy and dedication, qualities which she showed all her life; it was these qualities which enabled her to make the transition from a comfortable and highly cultured upbringing in Berlin to a new life in Ireland, where she created a special place for herself in artistic Dublin."