Life
1879-1963; b. Tulia, Co. Clare; ed. Laurel Hill Convent, Co. Limerick; grad. UCD (mod. langs.); contrib. 4 poems to Studies, June 1919; winner of the 1932 Aonach Tailtean Literary Competition in the Eucharistic Year; published Poems (Talbot Press 1932); received Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal for poetry; travelled in Asia, Africa and S. America, poems and autobiographical letters in Capuchin Annual (ed. Fr. Senan, 1952); also in 1959; d.22 March, Birr, Co. Offaly. WIKI
Criticism
See Thomas MacGreevy "The Lady of Birr: The Late Miss K. M. Murphy", in Capuchin Annual (1963), p.384.
Quotations
Autobiographical letters (Capuchin Annual, 1952): ‘[...] I have visited nearly all the famous ruins of the world, including even those of the Khmers and the Incas. [...] the Great Pyramid of Egypt and the Great Wall of China [...] [and] - a far rarer achievement - I have stood on the pillar St Simon Stylites in Syria. [...] Rio [...] Bali [...] dined with a sheikh in Morocco [...] succeeded in penetrating into the palace of the Shah of Persia to see the marvellous Peacock Throne [...] stark simplicity in a jungle shack [...] rock tombs of Petra [...] locked inside the mausoleum of a Shogun in Japan [...] escape [...] from Belgrade [...] Papal decoration for religious poetry [...] photographed [...] mounted in tallest camel in Africa [...] too unconventional to be published in the Capuchin Annual [...]. Yrs. sincerely, K. M. Murphy.’ (Quoted in Anne Olry Colman, A Dictionary of Nineteenth-century Irish Women Poets Kenny’s Bookshop 1996) q.p.)
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