Delia Murphy was born on the 16th of February 1902 in Ardroe, Claremorris, Co. Mayo before later settling into Mount Jennings Estate in Hollymount, Co. Mayo. John Murphy her father was brought up by small farmers in the Crossboyne and Taugheen parish near Hollymount, Co. Mayo. Although he was born poor he made his fortunes when he went to America working in the Klondyke Goldfields and Leadville mines. He married Anne Fanning from Dunkerrin, Co. Tipperary in The United States before returning in 1901 to Ireland. It is then when he was wealthy he bought Mount Jennings Estate. Delia’s other siblings were Paddy (1903), Mary (1913), Helen (1915), Angela (1916) and Theresa (1918).They were all bought up in a large and wealthy family. (Irish Heritage) The singer was educated at the Presentation Convent, Tuam; Dominican College, Dublin; and University College Galway, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. According to Aidan O’ Hara’s ‘I’ll Live Til I die’ it was there in Galway she met Dr. Thomas J. Kiernan and in 1924 they got married when she was twenty-two. When her husband joined the Irish diplomat service his first posting was to London. In London, Delia certainly made her mark in the music industry as she sang at many venues including gatherings of Irish exiles. She became very well known in political circles throughout the general public.
The early years, being Delia’s childhood, is where she began her singing and was thus the root of her success. Delia had described herself as the Murphy’s ‘harum-scarum’ daughter and said that as a child she was the odd one out, always in trouble. Throughout her life she would say she had ‘her own troublesome and romantic self to deal with’. She was regularly in trouble over her romantic attitude towards the travellers and with one in particular, Tom Maughan. She said she owed a lot to him as he was the reason why she grew a fondness for ‘the ballads’. Delia used to sit around the ‘tinkers’ camp fires at Featherbed lane and listen to them ‘sing like blackbirds’. (O’Hara)
When Delia attended college at the University College Galway she spent most of her time living in 10 Dominick street. Br??d N?? Bhroin befriended Delia in 1920 shortly after Delia began college. Br??d gave a lovely account of her and Delia’s Friendship. ‘ She was very attractive and great fun at hoolies and sing songs. She was a very fine singer even then. I remember she sang all sorts of ballads and mostly light songs. She taught me one of them. I think it was called ‘Under the Lilac’. The words went something like this ‘Under the lilac he smoked a cigar, smoked a cigar’. There’s a great deal of repetition, a sad jokey kind of song, and it ends up by the romance being a complete fiasco.’ (O’Hara) Br??d was impressed from the start of meeting Delia. ‘She had a great store of songs and taught them to anyone who wanted to learn them. She was great company and very generous, very open’. Here O’Hara showed the respect and likeability Delia had by others not only because of her musical talent but because of her personality and character. Thankfully the author showed how her performing transformed from being in the fields with the ‘tinkers’ to houses with scholars. ‘As Delia’s time in Galway came to an end she could look back on an important period during which she had steadily built up her repertoire of songs and ballads and before long she would have the opportunity of showing her talents as a singer to a very different audience in the capital city of the British Empire’. (O’Hara)
On the 22nd of April, 1924, Thomas J Kiernan was appointed to London. Colm Kiernan, Delia and Thomas’ son, stated in ‘I’ll Live Til I Die’ that his fathers ‘ work at the High Commission required him to do a lot of socialising, and he and my mother would attend lots of parties, that would draw the attention of the Irish.’ These years were particular important for Delia as the parties they went to has a lot of Irish present. This was a great benefit for the singer as ‘she was finding an audience, learning which kind of things they wanted to hear. They were chiefly exiles songs’ (O’Hara)
Her singing at functions and parties at London ‘drew on the welcome attention of HMV, and she probably recorded some duets there during this period, though certainly no solos’. It is unfortunately unclear if she ever recorded in London before 1935, but one thing is for sure, her recording really began in the earnest after she had returned to Dublin. According to O’Hara it has been said that first recording sessions took place in 1938 or 1939 which were ‘If I were a Blackbird’, ‘Spinning Wheel’ and ‘Three Lovely Lassies’ and they were an instant success.
An online website called ‘Mayo-Ireland Ltd’ I found very helpful in relation to music and later life. From the 1930s to the 1960s Dr T. J Kiernan was appointed to many Irish Embassies around the world accompanied by Delia, where they lived in London, Rome, Canberra, Bonn, Ottawa and Washington. Between 1951 and 1955, the singer returned to live in Ireland, and it was in that period she became a successful performing artist in her own right. She began touring Ireland and giving concerts in local halls and by 1952 she was performing in England, where her songs were heard regularly on BCC radio.
When the family lived in Canada she bought a house near Ottawa, where she spent most of her time. Delia recorded her first and last LP called ‘Queen of Connemara’ for the Kenny Goldstein Label in 1961 while living there.
During Delia’s illustrious singing career, she fortunately made records in London, Dublin and New York, performed regularly in concerts and on radio and even appeared in the film ‘The Island Man’ set on the Blaskets.
Her husband died in 1967 and in 1969 Delia decided to sell her farmhouse in Canada and return home. She bought a cottage in the strawberry beds in Dublin. The ‘Queen of Connemara’ died of a massive heart attack on the 11th of February in 1971.