Delia Murphy exhibition opening in her native Mayo next week

‘If I Were A Blackbird’, an exhibition on the lives of Claremorris native Delia Murphy and her husband, Thomas J. Kieran, will open in Claremorris Town Hall Theatre on Friday, October 20, at 7 p.m., running for four weeks, supported by Claremorris Historical Society.

The exhibition, which is on loan from the National Library of Ireland, celebrates the lives of Delia Murphy, the renowned singer of such traditional songs as ‘The Spinning Wheel’, ‘The Moonshiner’, and ‘Thank You Ma’am Says Dan’, and her husband, the late Dr. T.J. Kiernan, who was Ireland’s first Ambassador to Australia and a former director of broadcasting at Radio Éireann.

Delia Murphy was born in Ardroe, Claremorris, in 1902, and later lived at Mount Jennings House, near Hollymount. She was educated at the local primary school, then at the Dominican Convent, Eccles Street, Dublin, where she was taught singing by Mother Clement Burke along with her contemporary, Margaret Burke-Sheridan. Some close relatives remain in the Claremorris area.

She credited her introduction to traditional Irish ballads from her primary school days to the ballads she learned from Tom Maughan, a local boy, who taught her to sing ‘If I were a blackbird’.

While studying for a commerce degree at UCG, she sang at student concerts and later at private parties and minor concerts. In 1924 She married T. J. Kiernan, a civil servant. Shortly afterwards, Kiernan was appointed secretary to the Irish High Commission in London, and during their time there their four children were born: Blon, Naula, Colm and Orla.

In 1935 the family returned to Dublin where Kiernan took up the post of director of broadcasting at Radio Éireann, which he held until 1939. During these years Delia's singing career reached its heights, when she recorded almost 100 songs with HMV.

Until the mid-1950s, she was the most important exponent of Irish ballad singing to reach an audience on an international scale. Delia became a household name among people starved for Irish music. She wrote many of the songs herself. Among other songs she made famous were ‘I'm a Rambler, I'm a Gambler’, and ‘Three Lovely Lassies from Bannion’.

Delia accompanied her husband on all his postings. In 1941 Kiernan was appointed Irish Minister to the Vatican. The family was there when the Germans took over and later when the allies arrived.

The Irish quarters, situated at San Martino della Battaglia, was converted by Delia into a refuge for clergy, seminarians, and women religious. She kept open house, holding wartime ‘musical’ evenings every Thursday night.

Unknown to her husband she was involved, with others, in smuggling escaped prisoners-of-war and other allied personnel, into Vatican City, often using the Irish delegation's car to drive escapees through checkpoints.

The British war office recommended after the war that she be decorated; the honour was reluctantly turned down. In 1946 the Holy See made her a Dame of the Holy Sepulchre.

In 1946 the Kiernans were posted to Canberra, Australia, and later to West Germany, Canada and Washington DC, USA. Delia did not spend a lot of time in Washington, and lived on the family farm in Canada. It was while they were in Washington that Delia recorded her last record, The Queen of Connemara, the only LP she made.

When her husband died in 1967, Delia remained in Ottawa, and it was there that she gave her last concert. In November 1969 she sold the farm and returned to Dublin to live in Chapelizod.

In January 1971 Delia made a surprise appearance on the Late, Late Show on RTÉ. She died a few weeks later in Dublin.

In 1981 a memorial in her honour was erected by neighbours, relatives and friends at Annefield Crossroads, near Mount Jennings House.

The exhibition uses photographs, drawings, books and records to tell the story of the lives of the Kiernans, who during their years in Canberra sought to encourage a sense of pride in the Irish-Australian community; they emphasised the Irish role in the development of Australia and, equally, the role of Irish-Australians in the Irish quest for independence.

The exhibition is one of a series of exhibitions of various themes planned by Claremorris Town Hall Theatre. Admission is free and the display can be viewed during the venue’s opening hours.