Maria Doyle Kennedy (born Maria Josephine Doyle; 25 September 1964) is an award-winning Irish actress and singer. As an actress she is possibly best known for her roles as Queen Katherine of Aragon in the award winning The Tudors and as the title character's wife Frances in The General. Kennedy was born in Clontarf, Dublin. She graduated from Trinity College, Dublin with a joint honours degree in political science and business. In 2001, Maria released music on Mermaid Records, a label she founded herself. Her debut solo album Charm was released in 2001. She coordinated Sirens which is a compilation album of female artists and which was released in 2003. She released an album Skullcover consisting of cover versions in 2005, and Mütter in 2007. Maria’s new album with her husband Kieran is called The Storms Are On the Ocean. A collection of Appalachian standards dressed in darned gowns, its spiritual siblings are Plant's Band of Joy, PJ's White Chalk and Gillian Welch's stark daguerreotypes. Here are courtly tunes, murder ballads, child ballads and death fugues all backlit by Kieran Kennedy's acoustic guitar, banjo and piano.