Mary O’Hara  was born in Sligo in 1935) and is an Irish soprano and harpist.  . O’Hara achieved fame on both sides of the Atlantic in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Her recordings of that period influenced a generation of Irish female singers who credit O’Hara with influencing their style, among them Carmel Quinn, Mary Black, and Moya Brennan, among others. On the death of her newly married husband in 1956 she spent some years seeking spiritual consolation.   In 1962 she became a nun and she remained in the convent for 12 years/   On reentering the secular life she resumed her concert and recording career to phenomenal success.   She is now retired, remarried and living on the Aran Islands.

Her website here.