Item 1 - Hardback scrapbook containing copies of poems and memorabilia

Identity area

Reference code

IE 2135 P3/7/1/1/1

Title

Hardback scrapbook containing copies of poems and memorabilia

Date(s)

  • [c. 1941-1959] (Creation)

Level of description

Item

Extent and medium

94 pp.

Context area

Name of creator

(1916-1986)

Biographical history

Frances Condell was born Frances Eades on 29 June 1916 in Limerick. She married Robert Condell in 1936, and by him had one child, Alan, born in 1937. Condell worked as a teacher in Villiers School from 1955 until 1959, when she was appointed welfare officer for the Shannon Free Airport Development Company. In 1964, she was appointed public relations officer for Guinness Ireland on a part-time basis. Condell entered local politics in 1960, when she was elected as a non-political and first ever female Councillor to Limerick City Council. She was nominated and elected mayor of Limerick in 1962, the first woman ever to be officially voted into this position in Ireland. She was re-elected as mayor in 1963, during which term she was to host several visiting dignitaries, most notably President John F. Kennedy, Senator Edward Kennedy, President Kaunda of Zambia, Cardinal Browne and ‘Lady Bird’ Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Condell withdrew from political life in 1967 owing to health problems. Throughout her life, Condell also worked as a journalist and was a regular contributor of articles and poetry to the Limerick Echo, The Church of Ireland Gazette, Woman’s Way and The Irish Independent. She died after a long illness on 10 November 1986 in Limerick.

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Content and structure area

Scope and content

Hardback scrapbook with an embroidered front cover, containing handwritten copies of poems by Padraic Pearse, Cahir Healy and others; childhood letters from Alan Condell to his parents; press cuttings of poems by Condell under a variety of pen names; letters and postcards from family and friends; theatre and other programmes; and assorted pictures. Also a press cutting relating to Condell’s wedding. Poem titles by Condell include The 90 Hours, At Home and Overseas, The Letter, Dreams, May-Time, Wandering, Until, Remembering, Laus Deo, To My Black Cat, The City Child, Some Day…, The Tinker and Her Child, Nocturne on the Heath, The Sea at Banna Cove, Night in the Children’s Ward, Requiescat, Portrait of an Old Woman, Forgotten Things…, Prayer of a Tree and Exile, Come Home. Several loose items.

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Language of material

  • English

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    Alternative identifier(s)

    Original number

    P3/108

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