An old family friend, Mary Clare Moloney, was at St Columbkille's Convent in Hokitika.
Not long after her arrival she met and fell in love with Irish miner, Edward O'Donnell.
In the year 1908, she was granted the lease of the Rose and Thistle Hotel at Blackwater, which she ran with her children.
In 1905, the Birthday Reef island had been discovered at Waiuta, several miles inland from Blackwater, and O'Donnell was granted a licence to operate a hotel there in July 1914.
Many gathered there to play blackjack or poker games, socialise or listen to the piano or poetry recitations.
Depicted as curly haired with beautiful violet-blue eyes, she always spoke with a soft Irish brogue.