Two sketchbooks belonging to the composer Ina Boyle (1889-1967) have been donated by Mary Kelly to the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where they will join the rest of the Ina Boyle manuscript collection as TCD MSS 11735/1-2.
On the occasion of the donation, Roy Stanley, Music Librarian at the Library of Trinity College said: “Ina Boyle composed a number of stage works, and some of the manuscripts include her drawings of costumes and stage designs. It is therefore very exciting that we are now able to add these sketchbooks to the collection, containing Boyle’s drawings of her surroundings at Bushey Park and portraits of musicians in her circle (including her teacher and mentor Ralph Vaughan Williams). Thanks to this generous donation by Mary Kelly, future scholars will now have a more complete picture of the range of Ina Boyle’s talents.”
Sometimes the survival of an archival treasure depends on pure happenstance. Over fifty years ago a young girl, Mary Kelly, accompanied her father to an auction at Bushey Park, Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow, where the owner, Ina Boyle, had recently died. “Miss Boyle” had been a familiar figure in the locality, driving to and from the village in her bottle green Morris Minor. Members of Mary Kelly’s family spoke of her as a talented composer who was frequently performed by the BBC but was not appreciated in her own country.
In the house, Mary’s father noticed a heap of rubbish in a corner which was clearly on its way to the dump. He spotted drawing books in the pile and asked Mary to pick them up as they might contain some blank pages she could use for drawing. When they got home they discovered that the sketchbooks contained some of Miss Boyle’s drawings, so Mary refrained from using them and instead kept them safely as mementos.
At around the same time Ina Boyle’s friend and fellow composer, Elizabeth Maconchy, was arranging for the donation of Ina’s music manuscripts to the Library of Trinity College Dublin, where they were soon organised and catalogued. The collection is substantial, containing a total of 140 works, including 66 songs, 37 choral pieces, an opera, 12 pieces for chamber ensemble, and 24 orchestral pieces (including three symphonies, three ballet scores, a violin concerto, and several pieces for cello and orchestra).
Despite Boyle’s constant efforts to promote her music, few of these works had been published or performed in the composer’s lifetime. In an effort to remedy this, in 1974 the Library published Ina Boyle: an appreciation with a select list of her music by Elizabeth Maconchy. However, for several decades the collection remained little noticed. This has changed in the last fifteen years or so, largely due to the efforts of Boyle’s biographer Ita Beausang and the work of the Ina Boyle Society Limited (IBSL), spearheaded by its indefatigable founder Katie Rowan.
This renewed interest has prompted the Library to digitise many of the manuscripts and make them available on its Digital Collections platform This gives musicologists and performers easy access to the manuscripts, allowing them to produce scholarly and practical performing editions. As a result there have been numerous public performances and recordings in recent years, as noted on the IBSL website www.inaboyle.org.
All of this activity has been a source of great pleasure to Mary Kelly who, in the years since her rescue of Ina Boyle’s sketchbooks, has herself become a noted composer. She decided that the time had come to give the sketchbooks a permanent home and, in consultation with the Ina Boyle Society, offered to donate them to the Library, where they will join the rest of the Ina Boyle manuscript collection.
On Tuesday, 5th November last, Mary Kelly was joined by a group representing the Ina Boyle Society to make the formal presentation.
On the occasion of the donation, Mary Kelly said:
“I kept the drawing books all these years hoping that one day, they would find a proper home. When I graduated with a B. Mus. in 1978, my aunts urged me to do a Masters on Miss Boyle. Life got in the way and I regret not having taken their advice but am so glad that she is finally getting the recognition that my father and my aunts knew she deserved. I am delighted that the sketchbooks will finally be where they belong.”
Emma Coulthard, Chair of the Ina Boyle Society, said: “''On behalf of the Ina Boyle Society, I am really pleased that these sketchbooks, which give us an intimate portrait of Ina, are going to be part of the collection at Trinity College. The legacy of Ina continues to grow, and we hope to attract more interest in her life and work, given the important place she holds within Irish musical history. We would like Ina's contribution to be celebrated more widely and her works to be an inspiration to all who create or perform them.”
Ends
Pictured in the image above are Jane Maxwell, Mary Kelly (donor), Ita Beausang (Ina Boyle biographer), Roy Stanley.