[SYDNEY; MUSIC] To meet Miss Marie Narelle: The Premier and The Citizens’ Reception Committee request the pleasure of Mr. & Mrs. J. G. O’Connor’s Company at the Town Hall, Sydney, on Thursday Evening

A$50 · Offered by Douglas Stewart Fine Books

[Sydney : s.n., 1906]. Invitation card, 105 x 130 mm; lithograph printed; manuscript entry in ink recording that the invitation was issued to the O Connors; scattered small stains, bottom edge roughened; laid down on section of card from a nineteenth-century album. Scarce ephemeral item associated with the career of the Australian Queen of Irish Song . Provenance: Removed from a dilapidated album of mounted printed ephemera compiled by J. G. O Connor (1839-1913), Irish-born Sydney journalist, printer, and politician. From the ADB: Marie (Molly) Narelle (1870-1941), singer, was born on 28 January 1870 at Combaning station, near Temora, New South Wales, fourth child of native-born parents of Irish lineage, John Ryan, goldminer, and his wife Catherine, née Comans, daughter of the occupier of Combaning. Registered as Catherine Mary, the child was known as Molly. She was educated locally and at the Presentation convent (Mount Erin), Wagga Wagga, where she learned music and singing. After an itinerant life mainly around southern New South Wales, the family settled at Candelo, near Bega. Molly had already gained a reputation singing at concerts for local charities. On 29 January 1891 at St Mary s Cathedral, Sydney, she married with Catholic rites Matthew Aloysius Callaghan, an attorney s clerk. A drunkard, he left her about 1894 with three small children to support. Finding few opportunities in Sydney, she became a music teacher at Candelo, visiting her scattered pupils on horseback

• Binding: Hardcover

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