Life & Formation

May Power was born in Dublin on 11 September 1903, the daughter of Albert George Power RHA and Agnes (née Kelly). She was one of ten children — six brothers and three sisters — and grew up at 18 Geraldine Street, Phibsborough, where her father established his stone carving business on Berkeley Road in the early 1910s.

Along with her brother James, May was taught the basics of modelling and carving directly by her father, and both subsequently attended the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art. This placed her at the heart of Irish artistic life during one of its most significant periods.

The Muse of Patrick Tuohy

While attending the DMSA, May Power modelled for the painter Patrick Tuohy — one of the most gifted Irish painters of his generation, known for his portraits of James Joyce's family and his deeply observed studies of Irish life. May sat for Tuohy more than any other model, and the portrait that survives — now reproduced on her Wikipedia page — is among the finest records we have of her. It shows a young woman of striking presence, caught in a moment of composed self-possession.

May also modelled for her father, sitting for his bronze statuette of Queen Tailte — the legendary Irish queen associated with the Tailteann Games. That her own face was used for this ancient Irish figure speaks to the intimate overlap of family and professional life in the Power studio.

Career as a Sculptor

May Power worked as a sculptor throughout her career, continuing the family tradition in her own right. She died in 1993, having outlived her brother James by sixteen years and having witnessed the full arc of the Power family's contribution to Irish art — from her father's revolutionary death masks in 1922 to the wider recognition of the family's legacy in the late twentieth century.

Her Wikipedia page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Power