Margaret Burke Sheridan : Short Biography

Margaret Burke Sheridan was born in Castlebar, County Mayo on the15th of October 1889. 

She attended the Dominican Convent on Eccles Street, Dublin, and it was here that she began her vocal training. The first recognition of her talents as a singer came when she won a gold medal at the 1908 Feis Ceoil. The following year she travelled to London to attend the Royal Academy of Music, where she remained until 1911. It was here that she met an Italian inventor who arranged for her to travel to Rome to continue her studies. By now she was specialising in Opera. She made her Italian debút in Rome in January 1918. The opera was Puccini's La Bohème. She made some appearances on the London stage before returning to Italy where she became a star. 

In 1930, she retired, having suffered a number of vocal difficulties, though a rumour went around that a composer whose work she had rejected ended his own life, and that she never worked again after that. 

Margaret Burke Sheridan, sometimes remembered as 'Maggie from Mayo' died in Dublin on the 16th of April 1958. She is buried in Glasnevin cemetery.