List of minor EastEnders characters (1991)

The following is a list of minor characters that first appeared in the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 1991, by order of first appearance.

Eibhlin O'Donnell
Eibhlin O'Donnell was an elegant, warm-hearted Irish woman. She had met and dated Eddie Royle in the early 80s, when her job for the Irish tourist board in Dublin took her to a London office for a six month stint. Eddie liked her intelligence and sense of fun, and they always had good times together whenever Eibhlin was in London. However, Eddie was temporarily attached to the police PR department, and Eibhlin was committed to her close-knit catholic family (especially her widowed father and her marijuana-smoking sister Maureen) and so, when Eibhlin's work placement ended, she returned to Dublin and their relationship ended.

She was first seen in Walford in January 1991, when Eddie's father, John, brought her over to London to visit. Eddie was overjoyed to see her, but the timing of her arrival couldn't have come at a worse time, as upon seeing them together, Eddie's current girlfriend, Kathy Beale, decided to call off their relationship. Eibhlin was now in her mid thirties, and was thinking about settling down. She hoped to rekindle something with Eddie, but he opted to try and win Kathy back instead and so, she returned to Ireland.

When Eddie was badly beaten up by Grant Mitchell in April that year, Eibhlin returned to Walford to visit him in hospital. It seemed that Eddie's brush with death had made him think twice about settling down, and he decided to ask her to marry him. Eibhlin accepted and in August 1991 she managed to transfer her job to a London office. She moved in with Eddie at The Queen Vic, and the pair began to plan a future together in Walford. A part of Eibhlin was never quite convinced that their marriage would work and they didn't get a chance to put it to the test, as Eddie was murdered in September that year - stabbed to death by Nick Cotton. A devastated and heartbroken Eibhlin then returned to Ireland and has not been seen since.

Family

 * Sister: Maureen O'Donnell

Joe Wallace
Joe Wallace was a young, gay chef who was HIV-positive. He arrived in Walford in 1991 and got a job at Ian Beale's restaurant, The Meal Machine. He encouraged Mark Fowler to tell his parents that he was HIV-positive. When Ian discovered that Joe had HIV, he sacked him and disinfected his whole kitchen. Joe then left Walford to live with his parents and was the last person to see Eddie Royle alive before Eddie was murdered by Nick Cotton

At the trial of Eddie's murder in 1993 Joe briefly returned as a witness. Joe saved Clyde Tavernier from being convicted of the crime, by testifying that he saw Nick Cotton climb down his drainpipe the night Eddie was murdered. This implicated him as a suspect and provided enough reasonable doubt to secure Clyde's release from custody.

He wrote to Mark telling him he was dying in a hospice. Joe's death of HIV shocked Mark, but it was visiting the hospice that led him to meet his future wife, Ruth Aitken.

Family

 * Mother: Jackie Wallace

Lorraine Salter
Lorraine Salter was first seen on-screen in November 1991. Pat and Frank Butcher were going through a bad patch in their marriage and Pat started hanging around seedy pick up joints, where she bumped into Lorraine, who she'd known from her days as a prostitute. Lorraine managed to cause some problems between Pat and Frank, but seeing Lorraine's sorry existence was enough to make Pat realise that she'd left her promiscuous lifestyle well behind her.

In March 1992 Lorraine contacted Pat from hospital. She'd been severely beaten by her boyfriend and needed Pat to take care of her 15 year old daughter Mandy. Mandy had been taken into care by the social services in the past, and Lorraine wanted to prevent this from happening again. Pat was initially unwilling to help Lorraine due to her past trouble making, but she eventually relented and Mandy came to stay at the Butchers' B&B. Lorraine was released from hospital the following week, and she abandoned her troublesome daughter in Pat's care. Mandy ended up homeless and sleeping on the streets.

Lorraine never appeared on-screen again, although on Christmas Eve 1992 she contacted Mandy and told her she was coming to visit. She didn't arrive, so Mandy travelled to her flat on Christmas Day to reuinte. Lorraine wasn't there and Mandy was instead greeted by Lorraine's abusive boyfriend Gary. After getting into a fight with Gary, Mandy fled from her mother's tower block with Mark Fowler and had no further contact with Lorraine.

Family

 * Daughter: Mandy Salter