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Teresa Cora Brayton, an Irish poet and novelist, was born on the 29th of June 1868 in Kilbrook, Kilcock, County Kildare. Her mother and Father were Hugh and Elizabeth Boylan. Teresa had two brothers and three sisters. The Boylan’s were Irish Republicans. Teresa’s great grand-father was a loyal member of a United Irishmen’s contingent of pikemen who attacked the British garrison in Prosperous Co. Kildare on the 24th of May, at the beginning of the Uprising in 1798. Teresa’s teenage years were tough as it was in the midst of the ‘Land War’ years, otherwise known as the years of agrarian agitation. The agitation was lead by the Irish National Land League which was founded by Michael Davitt, Andrew Kettle, Thomas Brennan and Charles Stewart Parnell in 1879. Their goal was to get rid of landlordism and to help the Irish farmers own the land. Due to Teresa’s family’s involvement in resisting British rule in Ireland, she was very interested in Ireland’s freedom from a very young age. Teresa attended Newtown National School where she was awarded the literary award at the age of twelve. She was always a diligent student academically. It is not known where Teresa received her secondary and tertiary education, although it is evident in her work that she did indeed attend University. After completing her education she assisted her sister at the Newtown National School, where she had previously attended as a student. While she taught here she also wrote patriotic articles and poems which were published in The Nation. Teresa was a member of an elite cadre of women poets and writers. Teresa moved to America after her Father's death. She worked in Chicago, Boston and New York. She settled in New York, where she met her husband Henry Brayton. Teresa was involved in the Irish Freedom movement in New York. It is not quite known what Teresa did in New York but it is presumed that she taught there too and continued to write poetry. Teresa's canadian husband passed away and she returned to Ireland in 1931 to live with her sister in Bray. After a few years living with her sister she moved to Waterloo Avenue, North Strand. After the bombing of the North Stand in 1941 she returned to her home in Kilbrook and died two years later, on August 19th 1943, in the room which she was born in.