Mary Josephine Donovan O'Sullivan was

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

History History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

at Queens College, Galway (now

NUI Galway The University of Galway ( ga, Ollscoil na Gaillimhe) is a public research university located in the city of Galway, Ireland. A tertiary education and research institution, the university was awarded the full five QS stars for excellence in 201 ...

) from 1914 to 1957.

Biography

One of ten children, four of whom survived infancy, Donovan was born at Fair Hill Road in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

on 24 November 1887 and was the daughter of Royal Navy gunner William Donovan and Bridget Hurley, both natives of County Cork. She was educated at the Dominican College, Galway City. In 1915, in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

she married Jeremiah O'Sullivan from

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after th ...

who was serving in the

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

at the time. Mary Josephine was editor of the Journal of the

Galway Archaeological and Historical Society The Galway Archaeological and Historical Society was founded on 21 March 1900, at the Railway Hotel, Galway. It promotes the study of the archaeology and history of the west of Ireland. Since 1900, the Society has published 70 volumes of the ''J ...

from November 1932 to January 1951. Her main contribution to the history of Galway in the late medieval - early modern age was ''Old Galway'', which examined the growth of the town, its culture and politics, its trade and its ruling families,

The Tribes of Galway The Tribes of Galway ( ga, Treibheanna na Gaillimhe) were 14 merchant families who dominated the political, commercial and social life of the city of Galway in western Ireland between the mid-13th and late 19th centuries. They were the families ...

. Most of the first edition of the book was destroyed during

The Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and was only reprinted in 1959 in

. From early in the 1900s, she was an active member of the local women's

Suffrage Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally i ...

movement. She was a sister of John Thomas Donovan, late of the Indian Civil Service.

Select bibliography

All the following were published in the Journal of the

* ''The Lay School at Galway in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'', p. 1-32, Vol. 15, Nos. i & ii * ''Glimpses of the life of Galway merchants and mariners in the early seventeenth century'', pp. 129–140, volume 15, Nos. iii & iv * ''The fortification of Galway in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries'', pp. 1–47, volume 16 (1934–1935), Nos. i & ii, 1-47 * ''Barnabe Googe, Provost-Marshal of Connaught, 1582–1585'', pp. 1–39, volume 18 (1938–1939), Nos. i & ii * ''Note on the St. Nicholas MSS.'', pp. 69–71, volume 18 (1938–1939), Nos. i & ii * ''The use of leisure in old Galway'', pp. 99–120 volume 18(1938–1939), Nos. iii & iv * ''Some documents relating to Galway'', pp. 170–182, volume 18 (1938–1939), Nos. iii & iv * ''The wives of Ulick, 1st Earl of Clanricarde'', pp. 174–183, volume 21 (1944–1945), Nos. iii & iv * ''Italian merchant bankers and the collection of papal revenues in Ireland in the thirteenth century'', pp. 132–163, volume 22, (1946–1947), Nos. iii & iv * ''The Centenary of Galway College'', lecture delivered on 19 November 1949, published in volume 51, 1999.

Biography

Select bibliography

See also

Further reading