School: Port Omna (B) (roll number 2174)

Location:
Portumna, Co. Galway
Teacher:
Seán Ó Broin
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0057, Page 0118

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0057, Page 0118

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  1. XML School: Port Omna (B)
  2. XML Page 0118
  3. XML “Mary Eva Kelly”

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  1. Born in 1826 at Killeen House near Portumna Mary Eva Kelly spent her childhood about 3 miles from Portumna. She had a great gift for writing poetry and under the name "Eva" contributed to the papers and afterwards to the new national paper called The Nation. Her name became so closely associated with this paper that she became known as "Eva of the Nation." She was a close friend of Ellen Mary Downing another gifted poetess, who afterwards became a presentation nun.
    Her father Edward Kelly Esq. a well to do gentleman farmer had not the slightest sympathy for the aims of the Young Ireland party not Mary until she went to visit her uncle Martin O'Flaherty who was a solicitor in Dublin engaged on defending the prisoners summoned with O'Connell about 1844. Here she met John Martin, John Mitchell, Smith O'Brien, and Thomas Francis Meagher, Gavin Duffy, and Dr. Izod O'Doherty (who afterwards became her husband) all closely connected with the young Irelanders and threw herself whole-
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Language
    English
    Informant
    John Whelan
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    92
    Address
    Portumna, Co. Galway