Mary Eva Kelly
{{Short description|Irish writer}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| honorific_prefix =
| name = Mary Eva Kelly
| image = Portrait of Mary Eva O'Doherty (nee Kelly).tiff
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| birth_name =
| birth_date =1826
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| death_date ={{death year and age|1910|1826}}
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| resting_place = Toowong Cemetery
| occupation = Poet
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| nationality = Irish
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| genre = Poetry
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Mary Eva Kelly (later O'Doherty) (1826–1910) was an Irish-Australian poet and writer who was widely known as "Eva" of "the Nation".Boylan, Henry, ed. "Eva of the Nation" entry in A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2nd ed. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1988, pp. 107–108.
Biography
Born in Headford, County Galway, Ireland,{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article84444405 |title=Death of Mrs. K. I. O'Doherty. |newspaper=Queensland Figaro |location=Brisbane |date=26 May 1910 |accessdate=17 March 2015 |page=8 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} Kelly was educated privately with other members of her family. Her first poems were translations, including one of Alphonse de Lamartine's Dying Christian.
File:Mary Eva O'Doherty (nee Kelly).tiff
Kelly became famous for her contributions to The Nation, the first being "The Banshee". Initially using her own name, she adopted the non-de-plume Eva starting with her "Lament for Davis". She also contributed prose, essays and ballads. She was one of the three most famous women writers for The Nation, who were known as "the Three Graces".{{cite web|title=History Ireland: Women of the nation|url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/women-of-the-nation-by-brigitte-anton/}}{{cite news|date=3 April 1869|title=Celebration of St. Patrick's Day.|volume=II|page=7|newspaper=Advocate|issue=14|location=Victoria, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article169266970|accessdate=11 February 2021|via=National Library of Australia}} During the period that Kelly wrote for the Nation, she interacted with Olivia Knight, who was known as "Thomasine of the Nation".{{Cite journal|last1=McKay|first1=Belinda|last2=Buckridge|first2=Patrick|date=2013|title=Remaking an 'Old Tradition's Magic': The Irish Strain in Early Queensland Writing|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/queensland-review/article/abs/remaking-an-old-traditions-magic-the-irish-strain-in-early-queensland-writing/7ACBA279583785DDB83FDB08A69713D8|journal=Queensland Review|language=en|volume=20|issue=1|pages=110–125|doi=10.1017/qre.2013.9|issn=1321-8166|hdl=10072/59615|s2cid=146358329 |hdl-access=free}}
File:Kevin Izod O'Doherty Monument 2.JPG's Toowong Cemetery]]
In 1848, Kelly met Kevin Izod O'Doherty who was in prison for his radical politics. She married him in 1855 at Kingstown.Boylan, p. 108. He practised in Dublin successfully, and in 1862 they went to Brisbane, Australia and he became well known as one of its leading physicians. In 1885 they returned to England, where O'Doherty was elected M.P. for North Meath. They returned to Brisbane in 1886.
Much has been written about the romance of Mary and Kevin.{{cite news|date=22 December 1907|title=By Gone Brisbane.|page=10|newspaper=Truth|issue=413|location=Queensland, Australia|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206485979|accessdate=12 February 2021|via=National Library of Australia}}{{Cite web|title=Eva Mary O'Doherty - Old Qld poetry|url=https://www.oldqldpoetry.com/eva-mary-odoherty|access-date=2021-02-12|website=www.oldqldpoetry.com}}
Mary Eva O'Doherty died at Rosalie, Brisbane on 21 May 1910{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article19636497 |title=Death of "Eva", Of "The Nation." |newspaper=The Brisbane Courier |date=24 May 1910 |accessdate=21 February 2015 |page=7 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} and was buried in Toowong Cemetery.[https://online.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cemeteries/cemeteries_step3.jsp?mapdisplay=180758 O'Doherty Mary Eva] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221105903/https://online.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cemeteries/cemeteries_step3.jsp?mapdisplay=180758 |date=21 February 2015 }} — Brisbane City Council Grave Location Search. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
Mary's grandson Kevin Louis Vincent O'Doherty was killed in action at Dernancourt on 5 April 1918.National Archives of Australia: Australian Imperial Force, Base Records Office; First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920; B2455, O'Doherty Louis Kevin Vincent: Service Number - 3211 : Place of Birth - Dugandan QLD : Place of Enlistment - Townsville QLD : Next of Kin - (Aunt) O'Doherty Gertrude. 1914–1920 Her granddaughter Isabel Maud Mignon O'Doherty married actor Thomas Hunter Nesbitt on 30 April 1919 in Brompton, London.London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: p84/tri2/025 Ancestry.com; 2010; sourced 12 February 2021.
Bibliography
- Poems by Eva of the Nation (Mary Eva Kelly), San Francisco, Thomas, 1877.
- Poems by Eva of the Nation (Mary Eva Kelly), edited by Séamas MacManus, with a biographical sketch by Justin McCarthy, Dublin, 1090.
- Christine Kinealy, Repeal and Revolution. 1848 in Ireland (Manchester UP, 2009)
References
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External links
{{commons category|Mary Eva Kelly}}
- http://www.from-ireland.net/mary-eva-kelly-young-irelander/
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Category:Writers from County Galway
Category:Burials at Toowong Cemetery
Category:Writers from the Colony of Queensland
Category:19th-century Australian women writers
Category:19th-century Irish poets
Category:19th-century Irish women writers
Category:Irish emigrants to colonial Australia