Women’s Irish Network on Ina Boyle: In Conversation with Katie Rowan
WIN was founded in 1998 by Nessa O’Neill and Mary Clancy, to help Irish women overcome challenges they encounter in the workplace. The Women’s Irish Network has since evolved into an organisation that welcomes not just Irish women, but their friends of all nationalities.
Every year they host a broad range of events where women can enjoy the camaraderie that leads to important business relationships and enduring friendships. WIN also puts political topics of interest to all of us at centre stage. The group has now raised £550,000 for charities and projects dedicated to the service of women and children.
In 2019 they announced two exciting educational bursaries for young women. These bursaries provided financial support of £3,000 for a postgraduate degree and £3,000 for an individual working on an Arts project to two outstanding candidates.
“Our WIN chairwoman Angela Brady is in conversation with Katie Rowan of the Ina Boyle Society Ltd about the life and times of forgotten Irish composer Ina Boyle, one of Ireland’s foremost musical composers.
Dozens of her unpublished operas, symphonies and manuscripts were archived in Trinity College after her death in 1967 and are now being brought to life.
One of the few woman composers of her time, she trained with Vaughan Williams in London and was in the Proms in 1923 and performed many of her works to public audiences, but circumstances for women at the time held her back. She wrote music all of her life from her home in Enniskerry Co Wicklow, which inspired such pieces as “The Wild Geese”, “Elegy”, and “Glencree Symphony no 1”.
Wigmore Hall will perform some of her music later this year, 60 years after Janet Baker sang to one of her musical compositions. Ina’s time has now come, so let her music speak to a new generation.
Our 20 minuted video captures some of the highlights of this fascinating woman of her time.”