O'Doherty, Mary Anne (1826–1910)

Irish poet. Name variations: Eva O'Doherty; Eva Mary Kelly; Mary Anne Kelly; Mrs. Kevin Izod O'Doherty of Ireland. Born Mary Eva Kelly in Ireland in 1826; died in Brisbane, Australia, in 1910: married Kevin Izod O'Doherty (a medical practitioner and political activist), in 1854.

Although popular during her time, Mary Anne O'Doherty is read today mainly for her historical significance. As Eva Kelly, she began her writing career in Ireland as a contributor of patriotic verse to the Nation, becoming known as "Eva of the Nation." Her engagement to medical practitioner and political activist Kevin O'Doherty was marked by his sentencing and transportation to Australia in 1848, so the marriage was postponed until he was freed in 1854. The couple lived in Paris and Dublin before finally settling in Brisbane, Australia, where O'-Doherty continued to write poetry while her husband practiced medicine and dabbled in politics. Two collections of O'Doherty's verse (both entitled simply Poems) were published during this time, the first in San Francisco in 1877 and the second in 1880. In 1886, the couple returned to Ireland, where Kevin served briefly as a member of the House of Commons. They subsequently returned to Queensland. O'Doherty's last volume of verse, Selections, was published in 1908, two years before her death.

sources:

The Concise Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Wilde, William H., Joy Hooten, and Barry Andrews. The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press, 1985.

Howard Gofstein , freelance writer, Oak Park, Michigan