Eileen Donachie (née
Hamilton, previously
Henderson) is a
fictional character from the
BBC Scotland soap opera River City, played by
Deirdre Davis. Eileen has lived in Shieldinch her whole life. She was first married to
Raymond Henderson, however it wasn't a happy marriage, but did produce two children, Brian and Kirsty. Eileen did eventually remarry, too Tommy Donachie following her divorce to Raymond. She was originally a pub landlady. After her marriage to Raymond fell apart, Eileen decided to remarry to the man she thought was her real one true love. Eileen and Tommy did marry with her ex-husband Raymond turning up on there big day! Their new joined family seemed cursed from the beginning. When Lewis Cope turned up in Shieldinch, who was Eileen's first love, she began to get bored with Tommy, and had an affair with her old flame, with disastrous consequences. Eventually, Tommy found out about this, along with everyone else in the community - because of this Eileen and Tommy split up. However, after a long wait, Eileen and Tommy were going to get back together and whilst on the way to meet him, he was tragically hit on the head, therefore killed instantly by the 'Shieldinch Strangler'. After this, Eileen sold the Grill that she ran at the Tall Ship. Eileen never had a proper serious relationship after this, and enjoyed flings with younger men, which proved to make her happy, at least for the time being. However, soon Eileen was having an affair with her sisters husband, Archie Buchanan and when Gina found out, Archie manipulated her, and she chose to stay with him and cut all ties with her family, leaving them in turmoil. But, the worst was yet to come when Eileen was dragged into
Gina's mad world, and Archie's supposed death, helping her sister dispose of his body after a confrontation which saw Archie's mother
Liz, hit him over the head which left him supposedly 'dead'. Soon, Archie was back, claiming to have amnesia and living under the name of Douglas, but Eileen knew all along that Archie hadn't changed and what he was really like, Archie soon went back to his old trick, and Gina left him and went back to her family, much to there delight. Eileen did however eventually find a new romance, in the form of young politician, Alex Judd, it did fail, but proved not to be such a total disaster like the others. Eileen emerged from this relationship with a new purpose, wanting to help others and have a political awareness, and so Eileen defeated Alex in the community council elections and won the right to represent Shieldinch and its residents political matters. By 2010, Eileen was dating Murray from the community centre, but after a series of bad dates, and a Valentine's Day with her sister Gina involved, Eileen tried to make things special for the two of them. However, things weren't too last when Murray dumped her, saying they had nothing in common, although he didn't tell her that he really had feelings for his sister Gina, and with that Eileen told Murray that she didn't like him either and that being with him was like hell on earth. After going to the Tall Ship to drown her sorrows, she met Bob O'Hara, who she was fond of, and offered the Janitor job to, at the community centre. Eileen agreed to become a foster parent along with her ex-husband Raymond, and after the funeral of Archie, she got too drunk and slept with him, and they both agreed that they enjoyed there comfortable relationship they had, and that they would both be good foster parents and not make the same mistakes they made with there children. Eileen and Raymond had a meeting with a social worker, where Eileen broke down, remembering the complications she had with her own children, however she stayed strong and they both told the social worker why they would be excellent parents and how they wouldn't let anybody down, the social worker then left and later rang, confirming that they had passed there meeting and she thought they would be excellent foster parents. Eileen had a second chance at motherhood with Stuart – the product of a one-night stand with Raymond. Davis left the role in 2016. She returned in 2022 for the shows 20th anniversary. ==Gina Hamilton==