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Early life and Family

Irene Broe (1923 – 1992) was an Irish sculptor who was born on the 19th of February 1923 in Nassau Street, Co. Dublin. Daughter and sister of well renowned Irish sculptors, Leo and Desmond, she did not originally want to be a sculptor but her brother, Desmond Broe, convinced her to become one. In 1947, she began to attend the National College of Art on Thomas St, Co. Dublin, where Desmond had already studied. According to Professor Friedrich Herkner, a professor at the college Irene attended, “She was a very serious student and made numerous studies from life and imagination and carried out her work in various materials. She was a very ambitious and conscientious student who always attended all her classes. ” In 1952, Irene took her diploma her diploma and in 1952, she visited Paris where on her return to Dublin, she became a member of the first council of institute of the sculptors of Ireland. Irene participated in their annual exhibition from the years 1953 to 1957 and in the international exhibitions in 1959 at the Municipal Art Gallery of Modern Art. During the years 1958 and 1959, Irene lived in London where she met London-based sculptors, F.E. McWilliam and Lynn Chadwick. While over in London, she met a research biochemist by the name of Jim McDonnell who had also moved to London that year and they got married later that year. They moved to Malaysia where Jim was employed by the Malaysian Rubber Research Institute. In 1966, they moved back to Ireland taking up residence at 68 Carysfort Avenue, Blackrock, Co. Dublin. While living there, they had a child named Shane, who later lost his life in a car accident in 1994. Irene passed away at St Vincent’s Hospital, Co. Dublin on the 27th of August 1992 at the age of 69.