A Life of Her Own Reflections on the life and work of Maeve Kelly

With music and readings from her short stories, novels and poetry and with emphasis on Maeve’s outstanding work as a feminist activist and advocate for women and children’s rights, they will bring into focus the way her personal experiences and being both a co-founder and director of Adapt House informed both her literature and her advocacy. They will be joined by Helen O’Donnell. It will be both an inspiring and enriching event.

Maeve Kelly was born in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, on 2 July, 1930, and raised in Dundalk, County Louth. She was trained as a nurse in Oxford and at St Andrew’s Hospital in London.

In 1958 she married Gerard O’Brien Kelly. In the early years of their marriage they farmed in County Clare; in 1972 they moved closer to Limerick city. They had two children, Joseph and Oona. Oona was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1991, a loss reflected in Kelly’s poetry collection Lament for Oona.

She wrote novels, short stories and poems, often dealing with women’s lives and struggles. Her first published story appeared in the Irish Press in 1971. She received a Hennessy Literary Award in 1972. In the 1970s, she joined the women’s movement and co-founded Adapt House, a Limerick refuge for women suffering from domestic violence. She administered it for 15 years. She was also the founder of the Limerick Federation of Women’s Organisations and the National Federation of Refugees.

Her works of fiction include A Life of Her Own (1976), Necessary Treasons (1985), Orange Horses (1990),Florrie’s Girls (1989), and Alice in Thunderland: A Feminist Fairytale (1993). Her poetry include Resolution (1986) Lament for Oona (2005) and A Last Loving (2016).

Kelly died on 1 August 2025, at the age of 95.