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.
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
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