Celebrating 25 Years of ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ with Pat Donlon and Publisher Michael O”Brien in Smock Alley, Dublin.

A Sad Farewell to Dr Pat Donlon –An incredible woman

I have just returned from holidays to hear the sad news of the passing of Dr Patricia Donlon, the former director of the National Library of Ireland and renowned Children’s Literature expert.

Pat was such a special friend, full of joy with a real zest for life, highly intelligent, wise and always kind.   We first met when I attended U.C.D’s Children’s Literature Course. She was a brilliant lecturer and passionate about the subject.  We got talking and she asked why I was doing the course and I told her how much I loved and valued children’s literature and how I had recently began to write and make books for my own children. She persuaded me to show her my work and before I knew it she had told a picture book publisher about one of my books which much to my delight they decided to publish. I then told her I was writing a bigger book for my older daughter.

Pat was one of the first people to read ‘Under the Hawthorn Tree’ and though I had not really intended publishing it as I was nervous because it was set during the Great Irish Famine she persuaded me that I had to send it to a publisher as it deserved to be a book . That decision and advice would change the course of my life

By the time it came to be published Pat who had worked in the Chester Beatty Library, had been appointed to be the first female Director of the National Library of Ireland. It was a very prestigious appointment and Pat, like a breath of fresh air soon became a catalyst for change and innovation in its hallowed reading rooms.

She kindly offered to launch my book in the National Library on 23rd May 1990 which was huge honour for a new writer. She had started an initiative to ask Irish writers to donate their work and papers to the National Museum and I was privileged to give my manuscript to the library.

We became good friends over the years, with Pat always delighted to hear about new ideas for books, ready with good advice.

She relished every role she under took in state institutions and the arts, Director of The Tyrone Guthrie Centre Writers and Artists Retreat in Monaghan. She lectured for a while in Boston College and my husband and I stayed for a few wonderful days with her. Pat brought us to see the Kennedy Centre in Boston, a highlight of our American trip.  

She and her late husband Phelim made a wonderful couple. He worked for the Arts Council and both had a deep love for the arts, music, theatre and literature but Pat’s passion was for Childrens books.

Over many years she collected them, both old and new, building a unique selection of Irish and international children’s classics and illustrations and created a wonderful collection in her home in Blackrock.  Her collection is now housed in her beloved National Library of Ireland. 

Pat sparkled and lit up every room she entered. I loved meeting her, talking to her, chatting on the phone. She will always be remembered with great fondness by all of us who had the good fortune to know her.