Eva Birthistle (born 1 January 1974) is an Irish actress and writer. She is best known for her role in Ae Fond Kiss... and since 2015 has starred in The Last Kingdom. She won the London Film Critics Circle British Actress of the Year Award in 2004, and has twice won the IFTA Best Actress in a Leading Role (Film) award.
Birthistle was born in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland, but moved with her family to Derry, Northern Ireland when she was 14. She was raised Catholic but attended the non-denominational Foyle College. After her GCSEs, she returned to Ireland to study acting at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin.
In 1995, she got her first TV role as Regina Crosbie in the serial Glenroe. She stayed for three years until 1998. She was offered her first feature film in 1997, All Souls' Day by Alan Gilsenan. She played a variety of roles in Irish films, including Drinking Crude (1997), co-starring Colin Farrell, and TV movie Miracle at Midnight (1998), with Mia Farrow. In 2002, Eva appeared in Sunday, a dramatization of the events of Bloody Sunday written by Jimmy McGovern.