For International Women’s Day 2023, historian-in-residence Sharon Slater will give a talk titled The Extraordinary Lives of Catalina Sarsfield and Constance O’Mara to the Limerick federation of the Irish Countrywomen’s Association (ICA). The event will take place at the Limerick Museum on Wednesday 8 March at 11am.

Sharon Slater has researched the history of life in Limerick for over twenty years. Her website, Limerick’s Life, contains a compilation of historical articles, letters, photographs old and new, and maps that tell the story of people who have lived and died in Limerick throughout the years. 

In her recent publication, 100 Women of Limerick, Sharon introduces Catalina Sarsfield (c.1694-c.1750), the French-born daughter of David Sarsfield, who left Limerick with the Flight of the Wild Geese: “She was a favourite in the royal courts of Europe. In 1736, she became the Queen of Corsica through her husband, Theodore van Neuhoffof or King Theodore I.”

Regarding Constance O’Mara (1891-1952), Sharon writes that she “married a member of the celebrated Von Trapp family. She became sister-in-law to the real Maria Von Trapp of ‘The Sound of Music’ fame. She was related, through marriage to the author Kate O’Brien.”