Delia Murphy

No woman performer made a bigger impact on the Irish entertainment scene than Delia Murphy.

In the late 1930s, all through the war years, and for many years afterwards, she had the nation singing along with her in songs like The Spinning Wheel, Three Lovely Lassies from Bannion, The Moonshiner, and Dan O'Hara.

She was a unique personality on stage and off, and is credited with laying the groundwork for the Irish Folk Revival. She also worked fearlessly in the highly secret and very dangerous "spies' parlour" escape network operated by Mons, Hugh O'Flaherty - 'the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican' - in German-occupied Rome during the War.

This account of her life takes us from the turn of the century right up to 1971, and covers her childhood and school-days in Mayo and Dublin, her time at UCG, and her life as the wife of a senior diplomat, meeting royalty, prime ministers, and those she liked to refer to as 'princes of the Church and German warlords'.

Learn more about Delia Murphy here.