[1] Ireland regretted immediately his marriage, which he never consummated. His assistant and companion, Norah Kirkby, destroyed portions of Ireland's papers and correspondence upon his death, donating the remainder to the British Library. But see Fiona Richards, "An Anthology of Friendship: The Letters of John Ireland to Father Kenneth Thompson", in Queer Episodes in Music and Modern Identity (2002): "Despite his brief and ultimately unsuccessful relationships with women, there is no doubt that Ireland was considerably more interested in men, specifically much younger men. There is, however, no direct evidence that Ireland ever had a close sexual relationship with a man or a boy, and he did not particularly mix in homosexual circles. He was a very private figure, and because of this and the problems involved in extracting relevant information, there has never been any truly open discussion of Ireland's personal life. In particular, there has been little written about his religious convictions or his sexuality." The article covers the subject in some depth.
Father: Alexander Ireland (publisher and newspaper editor, b. 1809, d. 1894)
Mother: Annie Elizabeth Nicholson (b. 1839, d. 4-Oct-1893)
Sister: Lucy (b. 11-Oct-1866)
Sister: Alice (b. 17-Feb-1868)
Brother: Walter Alleyne (b. 19-Jan-1871)
Sister: Ethel (b. 11-Jan-1873)
Wife: Dorothy Phillips (m. 17-Dec-1926, div. 19-Sep-1928)
High School: Leeds Grammar School
University: Royal College of Music, London
Professor: Composition, Royal College of Music, London (1923-)
Scottish Ancestry
Do you know something we don't?
Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile
Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications
