Graduated with a 1st Class Honours Degree from the Crawford College of Art and Design in 2007. She was awarded the Eli Lilly Purchase Prize 2007, The Ernst and Young Award 2007 and was the recipient of the Countess Markievicz Gold Medal for Painting from the Dublin Arts Society in 2004. Her work is in the collections of Eli Lilly, The University Dental School and Hospital, Cork, The Cork Institute of Technology and The Capella Castlemartyr Hotel, Co. Cork. Mary is currently exhibiting at The Royal Dublin Society Student Art Awards Exhibition in Dublin.

Aidan Dunne wrote in The Irish Times 27th June 2007 Mary Clancy has already made a breakthrough. Her small, precisely articulated, representational paintings are as multi-faceted as cut glass, opening out into complex spatial worlds. They are altogether there, accomplished by any standard.