Born in Co. Derry in 1846, Helen Sophia O’Hara is best known as a landscape and seascape painter. Working in watercolours, she exhibited a total of seventeen works at the Royal Hibernian Academy between 1881 and 1892. In 1877 she illustrated the children’s book ‘Prince Ritto’, written by her friend Fanny Currey. In 1892 she first showed with the Water Colour Society of Ireland and from then until 1913 more than one hundred of her works were shown. In 1896 she was elected a vice-president of the Belfast Art Society. She also exhibited over sixty works with the society of Women Artists. Her work has been compared to that of Mildred Anne Butler and Rose Barton, and is included in the collection of the Ulster Museum. She died in Co. Waterford on 27th January 1920.