22 Obituaries FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, LIBRARIAN AND ACADEMIC Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon Born: January 28th, 1943 Died: July 23rd, 2026 Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon, who has died peacefully aged 83 at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, was a leading light in that remarkable generation of Irish women who were among the first in their families to attend university in the 1960s, and then made significant contributions to national institutions previously dominated by men. She was an inspiration to many much younger women, whom she mentored so generously. When you grow up, dont you want to be like her? a 20-something woman quipped after Donlon gave one of her witty and erudite public presentations at the Irish Film Centre in the 1990s. But if she broke into male bastions, she also shattered negative stereotypes of feminist professionals. She was glamorous, dressing with daring and elegance. This was a trait she shared with her husband, the late Phelim Donlon, to whom she was always Patsy. They left similarly rich legacies of professional respect and personal affection in the world of culture. Donlon was brought up in the capital, in Dolphins Barn and then Rialto. But her mother Marcella was from Co Westmeath, and her father Patrick McCarthy, a garda inspector, from Galway, so her schoolmates called her a culchie. She insisted she was a Dub. She graduated with an honours BA in English and Spanish from UCD in 1964. A decade later, her masters on Spanish golden-age poetry was rated so highly that she was able to convert it into a doctorate. She always retained a love of all things Spanish. However, her diploma in library and information studies drove her professional future. Childrens books (and their illustrations) were also a lifelong passion, but she gave up teaching in this field at UCD to become assistant librarian at the Royal Irish Academy in 1979. Two years later, as curator of western collections at the Chester Beatty Library and Gallery, she showed that making hidden cultural treasures accessible to a broad public would be one of her hallmarks. So would creating innovative and appropriate partnerships with business. Aer Lingus sponsored her Flights of Angels exhibition, and Image Magazine her show based on Belle Époque fashion plates. There was steel beneath her flair and charm, a fierce sense of integrity that was not always appreciated. Very reluctantly, as her suspicions morphed into evidence, she became a whistleblower, exposing her colleague, Dr David James, for his theft of many valuable artefacts from the Chester Beatty. In 1989, she became the first woman to direct the National Library, a prestigious chalice that was more than a little poisoned. Donlon was a leading light in that remarkable generation of Irish women who were among the first in their families to attend university in the 1960s, and then made significant contributions to national institutions previously dominated by men Donlon made hugh efforts to reverse its chronic underfunding, but the frustrations she encountered arguably led to a severe deterioration in her previously excellent health. She and her staff produced the first strategic plan for a national cultural institution. She was key to drafting the first legislation governing such institutions in a century, passed the year she left, in 1997. She established the National Photographic Archive as a branch of the library in Temple Bar. She again negotiated sponsorship deals, with IBM on automating the catalogues, and with Boyne Valley Honey on the book and exhibition, Treasures of the National Library. THE IRISH TIMES Weekend Saturday, August 1, 2026 But the strategic plan was never adequately funded under her tenure, though the minister responsible in her final years was Michael D Higgins. He is remembered as a dynamic visionary as arts minister, but his focus was on other cultural institutions. Donlon was outraged, and her candour probably did not aid her case. Lack of access to the [literary] heritage is a form of censorship, she told The Irish Times in 1996. One imagines the minister was not amused. The late Eileen Battersby captured this period perfectly for this newspaper on the day Donlon left the job: Donlons . . . arrival at the National Library could be compared with an American entering Victorian London society. This is an energetic woman, alarmingly devoid of gravitas . . . No big suit, no entourage of minions, no jargon, no clinical detachment, a dangerous inclination towards approachability, a tendency to listen to others and above all a natural unorthodoxy which amounts to taking chances. She did not let her disappointment at the library sour her later life. She contributed to numerous voluntary boards, did consultancies, and held distinguished teaching and research PatDonlon: Childrensbooks (andtheir illustrations) wereamongher lifelongpassions. Photograph: DavidSleator positions at Queens University Belfast, Cambridge University, Boston College and Dublin Institute of Technology, often linked to her abiding passion for childrens literature. From 2007 to 2010, she was director of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, where she again pursued organisational and technological reform with undiminished energy. Despite her zealous professionalism she confessed to being driven she led an intense family life, and became a loving and much-loved grandmother. Her circle of friends was wide and diverse, and she loved travel and food almost as much as books. Though ill health repeatedly curtailed her later life, she kept returning to her beloved Vernazza, in Italys Cinque Terre, with groups of friends and family, until 2015. While Phelim became known there as il maestro for his piano performances, Pat was recognised by many in the village as one of their own, a force of nature. She is survived by her daughters Lorna and Sinéad (Kelly), her son-in-law Paul Kelly, and her grandchildren Emma, Paddy, Rachel Eva, Ruth and Hannah. DavidSedarisontheseriousbusinessofcomedy.Page8 WalledtownsofIreland:RositaBolandvisitsWexford.Page10 PatrickFreyne:GlenHansardwasIrelandsbandleader.Page5 WEEKEND THE IRISH TIMES Saturday, August 1st, 2026 A WOUND IS HEALED Afterdecadesofheartbreakandnearmisses, Mayofinallyhasitsmomentinthesun By 2 Cover story A HOUSE OF PAIN NO MORE MayosAll-Irelandtriumphreleased75yearsof pent-upemotioninoneunforgettableafternoon ByKeithDuggan M acHale Park in Castlebar has always been best suited to those Saturday-night matches in winter, when the season is young and the promise uncontained. An ideal Cover story meme, the jokes came thick and fast. Through all that, Mayo footballers and supporters never shied away from speaking about it, nor returning to All-Ireland finals. Maybe we make too much of the football, Fr Leo Morahan, the former county board executive, said back in 2007. Mayo has the 4 Cover story 2004, when he was beginning his sec- ond term as Mayo manager. By September, he had the county back in an All-Ireland final, when Kerry defeated his young team. Like most GAA counties, the network of names and connections within Mayo football are impossibly dense: you could fill the People GLEN HANSARD WAS OUR NATIONAL BARD TheFramesfrontmanwasIrelandsbandleader, anditfeltlikehewouldbedoingthejobfor alongtime ByPatrickFreyne I n the 1990s, I wasnt convinced by The Frames. They felt a bit mainstream. A bit major label. I was a young idiot. Later, a friend convinced me that I 6 Music THE PIANIST WHO PLAYS WITH ONE HAND ONLY Freya Terris is the first pianist to pass their Grade 8 piano exam playing solely with their left hand ByJohnOConnor L ike countless other young musicians, Freya Terris discovered her love of music at the piano stool. Yet her journey has been anyt People 7 Fearkeptmefrom doingwhatIreally wantedtodoorsay Q&ARevJanetBroderick The Donegal-based priest on childhood games with her brother actor Matthew Broderick, how people react when she preaches sermons, and who could play her in a biopic Howagreeableareyou? I think life has made me agreeable 8 Interview I DONT LIKE EXTREMISTS. BUT I FIND THEM THRILLING AS CHARACTERS TheUSwriterandhumouristtalksabouttheseriousbusinessofbeingfunny onthepageandathislivereadings ByPatrickFreyne WEEKEND INTERVIEW DAVID SEDARIS A few days after I interview David Sedaris, I receive a thank-you postcard fe Interview 9 I just tried to get through my days [at school] without being found out as gay. Im 69, so no one even really imagined then that anyone could be anything that awful back then DavidSedaris: Idontknowhow tobuyaplane ticket.Idontopen anymailthat doesntlooklike fanmail. Photograph: Leonardo 10 Feature HISTORY EMBRACES US EVERY DAY IN WEXFORD In the first of a four-part series on Irelands walled towns, we visit Wexford, where history is quite literally in peoples back gardens ByRositaBoland I f Billy Colfer talked to you about history, youd sit up and listen, Paul Walsh tells me. W Feature field. We discovered that Sparrow was a surname of ship owners back in the 1830s, Hussey says. Hussey brings me out into their back garden to show me where, more than a century ago, a house was built against the other side of their wall. The medieval wall thus became a party wall. It towers 12 Photo essay Formedtotacklethe siltingissueintheriver Liffey,thereservenow extendstotheentirety ofthebay WILD AT HEART Photographs: DaraMacDónaill andEndaODowd Words: EndaODowd O f the 797 Unesco biosphere reserves across 147 countries, Dublin Bay is the only one to include a national capital Photo essay DublinsNorth BullIsland,partof theDublinBay Unescobiosphere reserve,isnow hometo180 differentspeciesof bird.However, conservationists warnthat,asworks tostopcoastal erosionareerected alongthecoastline, theirlong-term impactonthe ecologyand landscapemaybe difficulttopredict. Photographs: 14 Feature TWINS PEAK WERE PROBABLY MIRROR IMAGES OF EACH OTHER Whetheritsthehighsofalwayshavingcompanyor thelowsofsensingtheotherspain,thebestpartof beingatwinisneverbeingstuckforafriend ByJenHogan I relands birth rate may be falling, but the incidence of twin births continues to rise, with al Feature 15 Its sometimes fun and its sometimes not, because they could steal your stuff had a friend beside you. In fact, the twins only really went their separate ways when they went to college and that was a major shock, Emma says. Rebecca says there are lots of upsides to being a twin, but the T 16 Essay he vintage front page shows a street full of Dublin holidaymakers smiling at the camera, sitting on the kerb, waiting for the bus in the sun. But these early queues soon dissipated. Bank holiday spoiled by weather, announces the reusable headline. The citys thoroughfares were WEEKEND E Essay 17 Governments might fancy deploying bank holidays to foster cohesion and goodwill, but that doesnt mean everybody has to play along crashing out of the Fifa World Cup was that Friday, July 24th, became the bank holiday that never was. Would Keir Starmers mooted last act have applied across 18 Feature BE LIKE JOHN LENNON AND BUY AN IRISH ISLAND Four islands for sale off Mayo, Donegal, Tipperary and Galway, with bidding starting at 299,000 ByJessicaDoyle W hen you attract screaming fans everywhere you go, what do you do to get some peace and quiet? You buy an island, of course. Tha People 19 SARAH MOSS Teenage dieting made me an expert in mental arithmetic I bofin. It is suitable for grazing and features two natural freshwater lakes. The island measures 1.2km by 0.4km and rises to a maximum height of 63.3m above sea level. It is a Special Protection Area under the EU Bird 20 Environment TOMAÍ Ó CONGHAILE Our beautiful, troubled planet needs a skilled reconciler T he World Cup may be over but the fallout continues: Trumps unwanted interventions; Germanys early exit; football not coming home; Argentinas post-final petulance. Not to mention, of course, that banner. Environment 21 British navy, spent several days imprisoned in the Tower of London on corruption charges, and died of smallpox before reaching 40. Initially, a strait running between the two main islands was named after him and, by 1765, the Falkland Islands had become the English name for the entire 22 Obituaries FIRST WOMAN DIRECTOR OF A NATIONAL INSTITUTION, LIBRARIAN AND ACADEMIC Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon Born: January 28th, 1943 Died: July 23rd, 2026 Patricia (Pat, Patsy) Donlon, who has died peacefully aged 83 at Blackrock Hospice, Dublin, was a leading light in that remarkable generat Obituaries 23 RENOWNED ORNITHOLOGIST AND COMIC ACTOR WHO STARRED IN THE GOODIES Bill Oddie BillOddiewasamemberofcomedy trioTheGoodies,whoseanarchicTV sketchshowairedinthe1970sand 1980s.Photograph:IanGavan/Getty Born: July 7th, 1941 Died: July 25th, 2026 Bill Oddie, who has died aged 85, was a mul 24 Last word DAVID McWILLIAMS ThefirstvictimofAI? Theeconomy W e are in an era of great technological advances, or so say all the tech bros who are championing not just AI, but a whole host of technological innovations from finance and healthcare to supply chain management and communications. In