This page is about the original UK version of Fiona Gallagher. For the US incarnation, see Fiona Gallagher (US).
Fiona Gallagher (born 24 February 1983) is the eldest child of Frank and Monica Gallagher. She was the acting mother to her five siblings after her mother left due to Frank's lack of responsibility. She worked as a Nursery Assistant and was the best friend of Veronica Fisher.
She left at the end of the second series with her boyfriend Steve McBride, and now resides in Amsterdam.
History[]
She was forced to look after her five siblings; Lip, Ian, Carl, Debbie and Liam, when her mother Monica left them for Norma Starkey. Fiona was 17 years old at the time and had her appendix out in hospital only to return to five abandoned siblings. She severely resents Monica for running off and leaving them and Frank for not helping and being a lazy alcoholic.
Fiona met Steve, a car thief and occasional heroin dealer, in the first episode of Series 1. When their relationship began, Steve admitted to Fiona that he noticed her two months earlier at the club but he was dubious about her accepting his overtures. But after seeing her at the same club again that night, he was willing to buy her a drink, only for Fiona to have her bag snatched. Steve also impressed Fiona with his bold attempt to apprehend the robbers and for standing up for her honour when he punched a bouncer who insulted Fiona when she said he was friends with the men who stole her handbag.
Fiona was left a heartbroken wreck during Series 2, when Steve was forced to flee the country after bent police officer Tony inadvertently turns him into a fugitive.
She met Craig Garland through familiar circumstance, after he took it upon himself to return her bag that his step-brother stole from her in the street. Craig made a move and they had a one-night stand, but he was initially thrown off by Fiona's emotional indifference the next morning, as she was still heartbroken over Steve.
Later, Fiona discovered that she was pregnant with Craig's baby. After failing to go through with an abortion, and awkwardness with Craig's live-in but separated wife Sue Garland, she told him the news. Initially, they agreed to be casual friends in order to ensure the best future for the baby, but succumbed to passion and had sex with each other the same night. Fiona entered a serious relationship with Craig, though it ended rather quickly.
Eventually, Steve, still a fugitive, returned briefly to the Chatsworth Estate disguised as Debbie's social worker, wanting Fiona to run away with him and start a new life. At first, Fiona wanted nothing to do with him, still angry at the way his crimes forced him to abandon their relationship. However, after an emotional heart-to-heart, she fled with him in the middle of the night, leaving Craig nothing but a letter.
Fiona and Steve did not return to live on the estate. It was revealed in a conversation between Libby Croker and Liam Gallagher in the first episode of Series 8 that Fiona was now married to Steve.
Despite living away from Chatsworth for years, Fiona seems to have ample contact with her family (or her siblings, anyway). When Yvonne Karib lost her home in Series 4, Debbie phoned Fiona in Amsterdam so Yvonne could discuss the rent for the house next door. On the Virtual Tour of Chatsworth, Fiona sends a birthday card to Liam with Euros inside, saying that Liam would be the only one to know where to have them changed and so Frank would not be able to use them (incidentally, on the same Virtual Tour, there is also a letter in the kitchen addressed to Frank concerning an unpaid fine, and rejecting his attempted payment in Euros).
Fiona returned in the Shameless finale Episode 1114, when she was contacted by a post-natal Monica, who claimed she had a miscarriage. Upon her arrival to Chatworth, Fiona soon learned, much to her annoyance, that Monica had only aborted one of her unborn twins. Upon meeting her two younger siblings, six year old Stella and the newborn brother, Ben, Fiona feared they were being neglected. She persuaded Lip to distract Frank and Monica at the Jockey, while she took the kids to Kev Ball's house, so that she might make preparations to have legal custody of Stella and Ben.
But a series of mishaps occur when the kids disappear, she argues with her mother on her behavior and past abandonment at the house before the younger Gallaghers return with Frank who found them. Fiona demanded Frank hand them over but he refused while insisting Fiona call him her father but she ignored this. After Lip and Carl arrive, she updates them on what's occurred and ask for support in the argument. They refuse since they all turned out fine with or without their parents. An annoyed Fiona declares Frank and Monica don't care for them but Stella speaks up and says Frank mentioned that he would be happy to walk away from his responsibilities by getting on a bus but didn't. Fiona inquired on this as he mentions he doesn't have enough money, to which she willingly handed her father some cash for him to walk away free. However, when he hesitated in taking the money, Fiona noticed this and shrewdly stated that Frank can't walk away, because in truth, he couldn't live without his family and she is pleased by this change in him and to see he does care. In the end, Ben and Stella remained with Frank and Monica, but are presumably still in contact with their older siblings.
Family[]
Fiona, after a enduring a childhood of neglect and disappointment, detests her father, Frank, who she is forced to clean up after and take care of. However, she comes to forgive him when seeing that he truly cares about their family after he refused to walk away from them. She was pleased to see that he will tend to his youngest kids while reconciling with her.
Like most of her siblings, felt betrayed by the abandonment of their mother, Monica, three years prior to the beginning of the series.
Fiona is close with all of her siblings and is the only true role-model and nurturing figure in the household during the early series.
Fiona viewed both Lip and Ian as her main helpers, and they were working jobs to support the rest of the family. As well as some miscellaneous part-time jobs, Lip would charge money from other students in his school in exchange for doing their homework for them. Ian worked after school hours at the local Cash and Carry, run by Kash and Yvonne Karib.
In Episode 106, Fiona claimed to have had gotten Carl some speech therapy after Monica abandoned her husband and children.
Debbie, as the only other girl in the Gallagher household, looked up to Fiona and learned much from her older sister. Indeed, Debbie would take upon herself the responsibility of looking after the household when Fiona left to live in Amsterdam.
Liam was a baby when Monica disappeared, so Fiona acted as his mother for the first four years of his life. Her attachment to her youngest sibling was such that she nearly did not leave her family in Chatsworth in Episode 210 because of her love for him. Debbie reassured her that Liam would be sent to live with Frank and Sheila (which was a lie), to ease Fiona's decision to leave with Steve.
Fiona later returned and met her youngest sister Stella who was pleased to finally meet her. They bonded for a while and she comes to care for so much that she nearly took Stella and her newborn brother Ben from their parents. However, Stella wanted to stay with her parents and showed Fiona they had changed after seeing that neither would walk away from them.
Series Finale Return []
Elliot Tittensor posted a comment on his Twitter, on the 8/1/12, saying that he may be returning to Chatsworth for the final series, along with Fiona's actress Anne-Marie Duff. An article on Digital Spyconfirmed their return, along with Lip Gallagher, Monica Gallagher, Kevin Ball and Yvonne Karib.
Appearances[]
Series 1 - 2004
- Episode 101
- Episode 102
- Episode 103
- Episode 104
- Episode 105
- Episode 106
- Episode 107
- Christmas Special
Series 2 - 2005
- Episode 201
- Episode 202
- Episode 203
- Episode 204
- Episode 205
- Episode 206
- Episode 207
- Episode 208
- Episode 209
- Episode 210 (departs)
Series 5 - 2008
- Episode 501 (flashbacks)
Series 6 - 2009
- Episode 601 (flashbacks)
Series 7 - 2010
- Episode 701 (photo)
- Episode 702 (flashbacks)
Series 8 - 2011
- Episode 818 (photo)
Series 11 - 2013
- Episode 11.14
Notes[]
- At the time the series began, Fiona was twenty years old and had been the sole care-giver of her five younger siblings since Monica unexpectantly abandoned them three years earlier.
- Fiona, upon becoming pregnant by Craig Garland in Episode 208, told Veronica that she was the only girl in her school year who didn't become pregnant before receiving her GCSE's.
- Fiona had an enemy during her school days called Katrina Webb, who was seen in Series 2. Katrina would pick on Fiona due to her family's poverty. They met again years later when Katrina was a social worker assessing the family. Still harbouring a grudge and later convinced that Fiona had slept with her fiance, Joey Dawson, Katrina intended for Liam to be put into care, but was thwarted in her plans by the uncharacteristic appearance of Frank in a caring paternal role.
- In the Virtual Tour of Chatsworth, Fiona sends a birthday card to Liam (presumably for his eleventh birthday), where she gives him Euros, but tells him in the message not to let Frank get hold of them. She sends Euros as opposed to GBP because she believed only Liam would know where to get them changed.
- In her last appearance in Episode 1114, Fiona mentions that her unseen child is a boy.
- Fiona may have been around thirty years old as of Series 11.
- In an interview on the Channel 4 website, Anne-Marie Duff stated that Fiona and Steve moved to Cornwall after living for some time in Amsterdam.
Behind the Scenes[]
- Anne-Marie Duff who played Fiona is married to James McAvoy who played her onscreen boyfriend Steve McBride. The couple married on 18 October 2006 and have one child together.
- On 13 May 2016, Duff and McAvoy announced their decision to divorce.