Irene Giblin was born to printer Richard Thomas Giblin and his wife Nora E. Reardon in Saint Louis, Missouri. She was the oldest of six children, including Gertrude (1/25/1890), Richard Thomas, Jr. (10/28/1891), Leon F. (11/4/1893), Mary (9/7/1895) and Walter Anthony (12/1/1899). Irene lived much of her life in the Saint Louis area, where the family was shown residing at 1322 13th Street for the 1900 census.

Having been a good piano student showing a natural talent for the instrument in her adolescence, she was first employed as a music demonstrator by composers Eddie Dustin and Charles N. Daniels (aka Neil Morét) at the Grand Leader department store in St. Louis. Irene had known the pair for at least a year before they hired her at the tender but eager age of 14. Irene was hired to play all of the latest hits from the Whitney-Warner (later the Jerome H. Remick) catalog, and her sister Gertrude was part of the deal, further encouraging people to buy Remick wares through sheer charm and guile. Miss Giblin was later moved to the Stix, Baer & Fuller department store, also in St. Louis, when she was right out of high school at age 17. She ended up working continuously for at least five years, missing only a week of work during that entire period.

In her desirable position, playing the piano several hours every day for anyone who wanted to listen to the latest Remick wonders, it was natural for someone of Irene's creativity to also write some of her own works. Over a period of six years Giblin published ten pieces, most of them piano rags, and most issued by Remick. Among them, Sleepy Lou and The Aviator Rag were substantial sellers. However, it was the simply styled Chicken Chowder, which essentially had one theme turned in different directions for each section that was her runaway hit.

An early mention of Irene and her simple hit rag was found in The Music Trade Review of August 19, 1905:

It was further indicated in another notice that she had been joined by one other young female composer, Fleta Jan Brown, and that both of them had "achieved considerable fame not only here, but throughout the East." Yet another blurb in a couple of the early 1907 Victor catalogs, touting the Victor Orchestra's recording of the piece, read: "There is no doubt about it at all; this mess of musical chowder must be of the chicken variety, the bird being very much in evidence throughout. One of the funniest two-steps we have ever heard."

An indication of how hard it was for a woman to have a rag even considered by a publisher in this predominantly male city known for its ragtime is that not one of Giblin's pieces was actually published in St. Louis, even though she was perhaps its most prolific female composer at that time. This was in part because of her job working with Remick, but it seems that bulk of women composers were published in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit or New York. Still, her music was most certainly heard in St. Louis, as Chicken Chowder was particularly popular with ragtime orchestras.

As was so often the story, Irene eventually gave up her composing and performing endeavors, at least professionally, within two years after she married accountant Edward Patrick O'Brien in late 1908. Her remaining rags of 1910 and 1913, all printed under her maiden name of Giblin, were possibly submitted as late as 1910, but may have been in the Remick archives for a little while before they were released. They included her patriotic-themed Columbia Rag and the interesting slow drag Ketchup Rag. After The Dixie Rag, published in 1913 by Joseph Daly in Boston, Massachusetts, her musical output ceased.

Even though she devoted much of the rest of her life to raising a family, while still living in the Giblin family home with her parents for many years, Irene never flagged in her desire for playing the piano. For 1910 the O'Briens were shown living with her family at 5844 Romaine Place in Saint Louis, and Irene no longer listed music as an occupation. Richard and his sons Richard, Jr., and Leo were all working in the printing business, and Edward was listed as an accountant for a railroad, the Missouri Pacific according to Saint Louis city directories. Irene and Edward subsequently had two children, Richard Thomas (6/24/1911) named after her father, and Edward Patrick, Jr. (2/23/1916). The extended family was still living in the same crowded household in 1920, with Richard and Leo still printers, and Edward listed as a public accountant.

By the time of the 1930 census the entire family had moved to a larger house, with Edward and Irene in their own section of the home at 5136 Lexington Avenue, and her widower father living in another section of the house with Mary and her printer husband George McSkimming. Edward was now listed as a public accountant with his own business, and Irene still showed no vocation. A decade later for the 1940 enumeration taken in St. Louis, Edward and Irene were still hosting their son Edward, Jr., and her widowed father Richard Giblin. The two Edwards were working as accountants — the son in advertising, and Irene continued to show no occupation, as was also true for the 1950 record. Although she spent much of the Great Depression through World War II without an instrument, her husband eventually procured a Baldwin baby grand for her which she treasured through the rest of her life. Mr. O'Brien passed away in early 1958, just short of the couple's 50th anniversary. Irene survived him by another 16 years, dying in St. Louis at age 85.