Ireland grew up in Toronto and began piano lessons at the age of six.[2] At the age of eight, she was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Conservatory of Music. When she was ten, she composed her musical work Pioneer Lullaby; it was published in 1939. (The first page is in the Margaret Ann Ireland file at the Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Archives Branch, Library and Archives Canada / Government of Canada). Later, she studied with Mieczyslaw Horszowski in New York (1945–1950), Friedrich Wuehrer in Salzburg and Vienna in 1951, and Marguerite Long in Paris in 1952.[2]
She debuted in 1944 with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, receiving praise from the Toronto Globe and Mail which said her execution was imbued with musical intelligence,[3] then gave lecture recitals for CBC radio (1949–1952). In 1960, on her first tour of the USSR, the conductor of the Kharkov state orchestra described her as a high-class performer. She recalled of it the audience's enthusiasm and that she was often asked to play Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto with orchestras on tour.[4][5]
Her New York debut took place in 1963 at Town Hall and in 1963 and 1964, she recorded three titles for Capitol Records of Canada Ltd.: Margaret Ann Ireland plays Schubert, Rachmaninoff,[6] Margaret Ann Ireland plays Villa-Lobos, Granados,[7] and Margaret Ann Ireland plays music of the Polish masters,[8] The Rachmaninoff works she recorded, Six Preludes from Opus 23, were said to be consistently interesting and bold.[9] She was described in 1969 as one of the classical music staples of Capitol Records.[10]
As a producer, she prepared many major music programs for radio. Her series 'Musicscope' (the CBC's flagship series 1971–1972), received a Major Armstrong Award (Chicago, 1972). She donated several personal items to the sound and moving images section of the CBC Archives (available at https://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/shift-nb/segment/15608307).
Her awards included the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada Medal and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of New Brunswick.[1] After her death, she asked that family and friends listen to Rachmaninoff's Vocalise Opus 34 No. 14 as they remembered her.[1]
Ireland's portrait by Miller Brittain (1961) is in the collection of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton. In it, Brittain inserted shards of glass to indicate her flashing hands when she played.[11] In 1967, John Reeves photographed she and her family for the National Film Board of Canada and the photostory has been published on-line by the National Gallery of Canada; it is part of the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography fonds, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.[12]
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