{"id":286,"date":"2025-12-10T17:58:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T17:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/?page_id=286"},"modified":"2025-12-10T18:53:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:53:54","slug":"mary-ohara","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/mary-ohara\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary O&#8217;Hara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: This Is Mary O&amp;apos;Hara\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"352\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" data-src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/playlist\/37i9dQZF1DZ06evO0YUrQO?si=vhCefUv_SCSMeq9Jyn815g&#038;utm_source=oembed\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Achieving fame on both sides of the Atlantic, Mary O\u2019Hara influenced the \u201cFolk Era\u201d that many now associate with Joan Baez, The Clancy Brothers, Bob Dylan et al. Indeed, Liam Clancy writes about how Mary\u2019s singing inspired him and many of his contemporaries. Mary revived the tradition of the harp; one that had waned in Ireland by the Fifties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mary\u2019s story is remarkable. Thirteen years ago Mary O\u2019Hara retired from performing, taking off for Africa. She had done the same almost 3 decades earlier after the death of her young poet husband, Richard Selig.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At that time, however, she joined a contemplative order of nuns, emerging over 12 years later to take up her singing career, recording thirteen more albums, having her own television series and writing 3 best-selling books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mary has gone on to perform in the world\u2019s major concert halls \u2013 Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, Sydney Opera House and many more, playing beautiful harp instrumentals as well as traditional renditions of favourites such as \u2018Scarborough Fair\u2019 and \u2018An English Country Garden\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Achieving fame on both sides of the Atlantic, Mary O\u2019Hara influenced the \u201cFolk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-286","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310,"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/286\/revisions\/310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valentinemusic.co.uk\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}