author

Mary Gorges

An Irish poet and travel writer with a taste for atmosphere, landscape, and memory, she is best remembered for Killarney, a lyrical portrait of one of Ireland’s most storied regions. The little that survives about her life adds a quiet sense of mystery to her work.

1 Audiobook

Killarney

Killarney

by Mary Gorges

About the author

Mary Gorges, also known as May Gorges, was an Irish poet and writer. The Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry Project identifies her as Mary (May) Gorges, née Kelly, and notes that she died on December 15, 1911, in Kingstown near Dublin. It also records that she contributed poems to periodicals including Irish Monthly and lists her father as William Daniel Kelly of Castlepark, County Roscommon.

Her published works include A Twelfth Night King (1897), Killarney (1912), and On Life’s Journey: Poems and Ballads (1916). The dates of the last two books suggest that some of her writing appeared in book form after her death, while her periodical poems show that she was active in print by at least 1890.

What stands out most now is the range of her writing: poetry, narrative, and place-writing shaped by Irish scenery and sentiment. Killarney remains the work most easily found today, including through Project Gutenberg, and it offers a good introduction to her clear, affectionate way of writing about Ireland.