Mary O'Hara

Mary O'Hara (born in Sligo on 12 May 1935) is an Irish soprano and harpist from County Sligo. O'Hara achieved fame on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her recordings of that period influenced a generation of Irish female singers who credit O'Hara with influencing their style, among them Carmel Quinn, Mary Black, and Moya Brennan. In his autobiography Memoirs of an Irish Troubadour (2002), Liam Clancy wrote how O'Hara's music inspired and influenced him and others of the Folk Revival period.

Biography

Mary won her first competitions, Sligo's annual Music and Drama singing competition, at the age of eight ^[1] and made her first radio broadcast on Radio Éireann^[2] before she left school at the age of 16.^[3] She went on to perform at Edinburgh International Fringe Festival with the Dublin University Players,^[4] BBC's Quite Contrary and The Ed Sullivan Show, before she starred in her own BBC television series. Her first recording contract was with Decca Records. Part of her extensive music career included Mary spending a considerable amount of time on the Aran Islands collecting folk music and acquiring fluent Gaelic.

Personal life

She was introduced to American poet Richard Selig by Irish poet Thomas Kinsella^[5] and she married Selig in 1956.^[6] She moved to America with him where her star continued to grow. When Selig died of Hodgkin's disease only 15 months after their marriage, O'Hara continued to tour and record for four years.

In 1962, she became a Benedictine nun^[7] at Stanbrook Abbey in England,^[8] where she lived for 12 years. Her wedding band was melted down and made into a ring to celebrate her profession of solemn vows as a member of the Benedictine Order in 1967.^[9] in 1967.^[10]

O'Hara's initial speedy rise to fame was repeated in 1974 when she left the monastery due to health reasons and found that her musical reputation had grown during her time in the cloister. She then returned to performing.^[11] In a matter of months,^[12] she become one of the biggest international recording stars to come out of Ireland.^[13][14]

O'Hara's autobiography is entitled The Scent of the Roses. The title is taken from one of her favourite songs by the Irish poet Thomas Moore.^[15] Her other books include A Celebration of Love ^[16] and the coffee table book A Song for Ireland ^[17]

O'Hara continued her singing career for a further 16 years retiring from performing in 1994. ^{[citation needed]} In 1985, she re-married, to Dr Pádraig O'Toole,^[18] who was instrumental in the development of her career from 1974. They spent six years in Tanzania^[19] where Dr O'Toole taught at the Tanzania School of Journalism (University of Dar es Salaam). A musical play about O'Hara's life, Harp on the Willow, was a great success in Australia in early 2007.^[20] Mary O'Hara completed 5 volumes of her harp accompaniments. O'Hara still travels giving talks (Travels with My Harp).

O'Hara continued to give talks at locales such as the Yeats International Summer School, Sligo (2007), the O'Carolan Festival, Keadue (2008), Northern Lights Harp Festival, Ottawa (2009), New York University (2009), Boston College (2009) and elsewhere. The Burns Library at Boston College houses her papers and held a "Mary O'Hara" exhibition ending 30 April 2010.

O'Hara now resides with her husband part of the time in a 17th-century thatched cottage in Berkshire, England, and on the Aran Islands, overlooking Kilronan harbour.^[21]

Relatives

Playwright and author, ^[22] Sebastian Barry, is O'Hara's nephew, ^[23] the son of her sister, the late actress Joan O'Hara (Eunice in Fair City on RTÉ-TV)^[24]

Influence in modern culture

O'Hara's recording of "Óró Mo Bháidín" is sampled in Passion Pit's 2008 single "Sleepyhead" and Sub Focus' song "Safe In Sound" from the album Torus.

Discography

References

External links

• Official website