Nelly O'Brien

Ellen Lucy or Nelly O'Brien (4 June 1864 – 1 April 1925) was an Irish miniaturist, landscape artist, and Gaelic League activist. She is not to be confused with the 18th-century courtesan Nelly O'Brien.

Life and family Nelly O'Brien was born Ellen Lucy O'Brien on 4 June 1864, at Cahirmoyle, County Limerick. She was the eldest child Edward William O'Brien and Mary O'Brien (née Spring Rice). Whilst a young child, O'Brien spent two years living on the French Riviera from 1866 to 1868. Her mother later died of tuberculosis, and the three children were raised by their aunt, the writer and nationalist, Charlotte Grace O'Brien. Their father remarried in 1880, to Julia Marshall, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. O'Brien attended school in England from 1879, and later enrolled to study painting at the Slade School of Art. O'Brien met Walter Osborne through her brother Dermod, and considered herself engaged to him, but Osborne died in 1903. A portrait of O'Brien by Osborne is held in the Hugh Lane Gallery. O'Brien died suddenly on 1 April 1925 whilst visiting Dermod at 66 Elm Park Gardens, London. She is buried at the family plot in Cahirmoyle. One of her ultimate goals was to create a national Irish church, which would unite Protestants and Catholics through the Irish language. To this end, she established the Irish Guild of the Church with Seoirse de Rút in 1914. The aim of the organisation was to provide a communal union for members of the Church of Ireland who were dedicated to "Irish Ireland" ideals. Acting as a representative for the Gaelic League, O'Brien travelled to the United States with Fionan MacColuim in 1914 to 1915, to fund raise and promote Irish art and industries.

O'Brien noted that she initially thought that the 1916 Easter Rising was "in the nature a demonstration against conscription as it had been announced that the volunteers would resist disarmament". O'Brien was staying with the Hydes at 1 Earlsfort Place during the Rising, which destroyed her flat at College Park Chambers. She protested the conscription bill in Ireland as a mass meeting of women at the Mansion House in 1918. She launched the Gaelic Churchman in 1919 as the official publication of the Irish Guild of the Church. In one article entitled A plea for the Irish services, she promoted her campaign for Irish-language services in Protestant churches. In her capacity of vice-president of the guild, she invited Éamon de Valera to attend one of their meetings in 1921.