Title: Sisters of the Revolutionaries The Story of Margaret and Mary Brigid Pearse
Speaker: Teresa and Mary Louise O’Donnell
Time: @ 7:45 PM
Location: Iona Pastoral Centre
Teresa O’Donnell is a harpist and musicologist. She was awarded a Foras Feasa fellowship to pursue doctoral studies at St Patrick’s College, DCU, which she completed in 2012; she also lectured there. Her research has been published in a number of journals including, the Journal of Music Research Online and the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland.
Source: irishacademicpress.com
Mary Louise O’Donnell is a harpist and author of Ireland’s Harp: the Shaping of Irish Identity, c. 1770-1880 (2014). She has published widely on topics relating to Irish cultural history, semiotics, and performance studies. Her research has been published in Utopian Studies, Éire-Ireland, the Journal of the Society for Musicology in Ireland, and The Encyclopaedia of Music in Ireland.
Source: irishacademicpress.com
‘Sisters of the Revolutionaries’ focuses on the lives of Margaret and Mary Brigid, sisters of Patrick and Willie Pearse who were executed for their role in the 1916 Rising. Patrick and Willie Pearse have long been memorialised in Irish society, yet comparatively little is known about their two sisters and the efforts made by them to uphold the image of their brothers’ legacies. Margaret was an Irish language activist, politician and educator, working with Patrick in founding St. Enda’s School. She took the school into her own hands following his execution. Mary Brigid was a musician and author of short stories, children’s stories and dramas.
The sisters’ successes were divergent and they never enjoyed a close relationship like Patrick and Willie; however, they both shared a deep affection for their brothers. Authors Teresa and Mary Louise O’Donnell provide a fascinating insight into the lives of the lesser-known Pearse siblings. Their book illuminates Margaret and Mary Brigid’s relationship with their brothers, the many joys that were the pattern of their upbringing, and the poignant disintegration of their own relationship later in life.
Source: amazon.com
Follow-up:
Dr. Teresa O’Donnell – teresaodonnell.com
Dr. Mary Louise O’Donnell – artist bio. remberingbuntingfestival.com
Harpists Teresa & Mary Louise O’Donnell – Thomas Moore’s Melodies in Kilmainham Gaol and the Pearse Museum: Office of Public Works, YouTube
Knocklyon History Society 