Helen O'Clery facts for kids

Helen O'Clery (born Helen Gallagher) was an Irish writer. She was born in 1910 and passed away on October 11, 2006. She was best known for writing many wonderful books for children.

Helen O'Clery's Early Life

Helen Gallagher was born in Stranorlar, County Donegal. She was the middle child of three. Her parents were Henry Thomas Gallagher and Eileen Cullen Gallagher. Her father worked as a lawyer for the government in County Donegal. Her mother was from County Wexford.

Family Business: Urney Chocolates

Helen's mother was very creative. She started small businesses to help local girls and people who had come from Belgium. One of these businesses made sweets and chocolates. It became very successful! Soon, Helen's father joined the business. They created a company called Urney Chocolates in Dublin. This company grew to be one of the biggest chocolate makers in Europe.

Helen went to school in Dublin and France. Later, she trained to be a nurse at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin.

Helen O'Clery's Writing Career

Helen O'Clery trained as a nurse and also as a physiotherapist. But she found her passion in writing. She wrote many children's books while she was at home raising her five children.

A Family Affair

Writing was a family effort for Helen! Her older daughter, Ann, helped by drawing pictures for some of her books. Helen's sister-in-law, Una Coonan, typed all her stories. For her "Pegasus" books, her son Edward even drew the maps!

Exploring Ancient Mysteries

Helen O'Clery was also very interested in old Irish history. She loved studying ancient stone circles. She spent time researching and taking photos of the Athgreany stone circle near Hollywood, County Wicklow. She especially liked to photograph the stones during the summer and winter solstices (the longest and shortest days of the year) and the equinoxes (when day and night are equal).

She shared her research in two books: Athgreany Stone Circle: The Stones of Time (published in 1990) and Zodiacal Archetypes in Celtic Myths (published in 1992).

Helen O'Clery's Family Life

In 1936, Helen Gallagher married Dermot O'Clery. He was an engineer who later taught at Trinity College Dublin. They lived in Tallaght, in County Dublin.

Helen and Dermot had five children: Ann, Henry, Peter, Edward, and Eliza. Helen O'Clery's husband passed away in 1977. She lived to be 96 years old and died in 2006 while living with her daughter in Knocklyon.

You can find a special collection of her original writings at the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.