Máire Mhac an tSaoi

Máire Mhac an tSaoi (born 1922) is an Irish language scholar, poet, writer and academic.

Background

Mhac an tSaoi was born as Máire MacEntee in Dublin in 1922. Her father, Seán MacEntee, a native of Belfast, was a founding member of Fianna Fáil, a long-serving TD and Tánaiste in the Dáil and a participant in the Easter Rising of 1916. Her mother, County Tipperary-born Margaret Browne (or de Brún), a teacher at Alexandra College, was also an Irish republican. Her uncle, Monsignor Pádraig de Brún, was one of the most respected scholars of the Irish language in the twentieth century. Another uncle was the conservative prelate Michael Cardinal Browne, who was Master of the Dominican Order.

Marriage

Her late husband was Conor Cruise O'Brien, an Irish politician, writer and historian. The couple were married in 1962 and later adopted two children, Patrick and Margaret.

Career

Mhac an tSaoi has had a lifelong passion for the Irish language and she is today one of the leading authorities on Munster Irish. She is a prolific writer in Irish. As a member of Aosdána she became a key opponent of the Catholic convert and nationalist Francis Stuart, a one-time son-in-law of Maud Gonne, for his perceived anti-Semitism.^{[citation needed]}

Her poem Jack and short story An Bhean Óg both have feature on the Leaving Certificate Irish course, at both Higher and Ordinary Levels, from 2006 to 2010.

Works

Mhac an tSaoi wrote:

• Margadh na Saoire (Baile Átha Cliath: Sáirséal agus Dill, 1956)
• Codladh an Ghaiscigh (1973)
• An Galar Dubhach (1980)
• An Cion go dtí Seo (1987)
• “Writing In Modern Irish — A Benign Anachronism?”, The Southern Review, 31 Special Issue on Irish Poetry (1995)
• The Same age as the State, O'Brien Press, Dublin ISBN 0-86278-885-4; ISBN 978-0-86278-885-8
• Cérbh í Meg Russell?, Leabhar Breac, (2008).

Mhac an tSaoi and O'Brien together wrote:

• A Concise History of Ireland, Thames and Hudson, London ISBN 0-500-45011-0 (1972)