Harpist Mary O'Hara, Clontarf, Dublin, before leaving for South Africa. 28/05/1954..
Mary O'Hara (born in Sligo on 12th 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, among others. 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..Mary won her first competitions, Sligo’s annual Music and Drama singing competition, at the age of eight and made before she left school at the age of 16. She went on to perform at Edinburgh International Fringe Festival with the Dublin University Players, 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. She was introduced to American poet Richard Selig by Irish poet Thomas Kinsella and she married Selig in 1956. 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 nun at Stanbrook Abbey, where she lived for 12 years. Her wedding band was melted down and made into a ring to celebrate her final vows as a nun in 1967. Her initial speedy rise to fame was repeated in 1974 when she left the order and returned to performing. In a matter of months, she become one of the biggest international recording stars to come out of Ireland..
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