Early Days

Mary O'Hara was born in 1935, in Sligo, on the west coast of Ireland.

While still at school, she made her 1st national broadcast, singing and accompanying herself on the Celtic harp. Her reputation as a singer soon spread beyond her native Ireland.

The Edinburgh Festival, BBC television, the Ed Sullivan Show -- an instant public response rewarded her with her own prime-time BBC TV series and her 1st recording contract with Decca Records, all circa the mid 1950's.

At 21 years of age, she married Richard Selig, the young American poet,then a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. They moved to the USA but sadly he died prematurely of Hodgkin's Disease within 15 months of their marriage.

After her husband's death, the zest had gone out of life for Mary. 

For 4 years she travelled the globe giving concerts and appearing on radio and TV. In 1959 she made an extended and highly successful tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Critics the world over were unanimous in their praise, but the more success she had, the more persistently she felt the call to the monastic life and eventually in 1962 she entered an English Benedictine Monastery where she remained for 12 years.

A breathtaking performance of Úna Bhán

Middle Years

While away, her recordings continued to sell with great success. 

When her health began to give way under the rigours of monastic life, Mary decided to come out into the world again and more importantly, to play publicly.

I have a favourite old record of Mary performing live and near the end of the performance, she introduces "Lord of the Dance."

She says, in a gentle Irish lilt, that she must thank Sidney Carter for his wonderful song, because the first time she heard it, [while still in the convent], she knew it was time to return to music.

This was the song, she said, that made her want to sing again.

For your listening pleasure --

Later Years of Mary's Career

When she again resumed her singing career, after such a long absence, history repeated itself. 

After an appearance on the Russell Harty TV Show, her impact on the public was such that the switchboard was swamped with requests for her reappearance.

Soon after,the first of many concert appearances at London's Royal Festival Hall was sold out, a resounding success that became a best-selling record.

Since 1977, Mary O'Hara truly became an artist of international appeal, having appeared in most of the world's major venues,

from London's Royal Albert Hall to Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall;

from New York's Carnegie Hall to Sydney's Opera House and toured the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland and Europe.

She recorded 23 long-playing albums, some of them becoming best sellers and has also written 3 best-selling books. Her autobiography 'The Scent of the Roses', sold over a million copies!

"I am not, I think, a folk-singer as the purists understand it.

What I try to do is interpret traditional songs with the skill

and respect given to art songs,

simply by singing them with all the understanding I possess.

I still think that folk and traditional songs

are among the most beautiful,

but I also love Elizabethan lyrics and some modern poets' verses

and prose-poems, which sing to me, so I set them to music."

~ Mary O'Hara ~

Here she is singing a prose poem of her late 1st husband's which she put to music

Semi Retirement

Mary remarried in 1985 to a 'kindred spirit' who happens to be a teacher, journalist, and historian of some note.

Mary O'Hara retired from performing of any kind in 1994. She says she felt a special relief when she knew she was going to retire! 

After all, being a professional performer requires one to practice singing and playing the harp on a daily basis, for most of the day, leaving little time for anything else!

She has found peace, contentment and happiness in her retirement ~ something we all wish her ~ but we WILL miss hearing her voice in concerts around the world !

Here she is singing and playing the harp at her home

Current Affairs

Mary and her husband spent 6 years in Africa while he was teaching, before returning to their home in England where they spend part of the year.

After searching for many years, the playwright John Misto contacted her for permission to write a play based on her autobiography The Scent of the Roses.

Harp on the Willow has played to sold-out crowds in Australia and received excellent reviews!  Mary herself has sometimes appeared onstage after nightly performances to answer questions.

In 2007, Mary released a 2-CD compilation of early Irish music which she herself chose ~ the 1st time in her career that she has ever done so and the result is a wonderful selection that is treasured by her fans everywhere.

 

In the past couple of years, Mary has released several books of her harp accompaniments entitled Travels with My Harp. 

It is because of these that Mary is still invited to give lectures and multi-media presentations to audiences all over the world.

She was recently in Ottawa, Halifax, New York and Boston and it was to Boston College that she donated her harp as well as most of her papers, documents, correspondence, posters, etc. Her 1st husband, Richard Selig's papers had all been donated to Harvard University, so it seems appropriate.

It would seem that although Mary would prefer to settle out of the limelight and retire with her husband, she is still in demand for yet more of these presentations, so, the door has been left open . . . at least for just a little longer.

Read an interview with Mary in Ottawa at the inaugural Northern Lights HarpFest.