Mary has worked in Textiles, both as teacher and Artist since 1986 when she set up her studio at Tunstall, Suffolk. Born in Cork, Ireland, Mary has followed a career in Education across the age ranges, her final position being Community Education Officer based at Kesgrave, Ipswich. She has a Certificate in Education from the University of London and City and Guilds I and II in Creative Embroidery.

She moved to Ipswich in 1997 and continues to produce textile works, exhibiting Nationally and Internationally and giving workshops and talks. She also works in schools and supports 6th form and City andGuilds students in their course work. Her work is in private collections in Ireland, New Zealand and Australia where she spends time annually.

A constant thread running through Mary's work is her emotional response to people places and events. This can be seen particularly in the two large pieces of work dedicated to the memory of the children of Izieu who died at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. Other pieces of work relate to her time in Syria and the Oman as well as her native Ireland.

A current sewing interest of Mary's is that of creating work related to aspects of history, memories and relationships, often using recycled cloth, letters, photos and text which recall past events and give new life to them in a textile work. The Relique series is part of this journey and the choice of hand sewing is influenced by her time with International tutors Dorothy Caldwell and Ilze Aviks at Textile Fibre Forum Australia in 2004 and 2007.

A sense of humour can also be detected in Mary's recent work The Heart which appears in Val Holmes new book 'Creative Recycling'.