Maconchy spent the initial months of the war in Ireland, living with her aunt in Dublin along with her elder sister, Maureen, who had also travelled to Ireland with her young son, Richard. On 24 October, Maconchy gave birth to her daughter, Elizabeth Anna. As there was already another Anna in the household in the form of her aunt's dog, the new arrival was given the moniker ‘baby Anna’ and the dog was bestowed the title of ‘real Anna’. While Maconchy was relieved that her abundance of caution ensured that she was able to give birth safely without the threat of air raids, she nevertheless lamented having to leave her husband behind in England.

Maconchy remained primarily in Ireland through March. Though she had her hands full with a new baby, she was also busy with a new project: a collaboration with the Irish Ballet Club on a ballet titled Puck Fair. During her time in Ireland, Maconchy was also invited by the Dublin Music Society to present a talk on modern music, which she delivered in March. Titled ‘What is modern music?’, Maconchy structured her talk as an exploration of underlying ideologies and schools of thought, from nationalism to Gebrauchsmusik, quarter- tone music, popular music, atonality, and twelve-tone music. Eloquent, succinct, and easily accessible, Maconchy's talk, which included musical examples illustrated by Charles Lynch, was written with the intent of inspiring dialogue and encouraging the audience to form their own conclusions as opposed to accepting her own. It also offers the first detailed record of Maconchy's own thoughts about her musical process, namely the importance of counterpoint as a means of harmonic development, as well as the underlying principle of ‘impassioned argument’: