Background

Mhac an tSaoi was born as Máire MacEntee in Dublin in 1922. Her father, Seán MacEntee

Seán MacEntee

Seán MacEntee was an Irish politician. In a career that spanned over forty years as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála, MacEntee was one of the most important figures in post-independence Ireland. He served in the governments of Éamon de Valera and Seán Lemass in a range of ministerial positions,...

, a native of Belfast

Belfast

Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, was a founding member of Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil

Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...

, a long-serving TD

Teachta Dála

A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...

 and Tánaiste

Tánaiste

The Tánaiste is the deputy prime minister of Ireland. The current Tánaiste is Eamon Gilmore, TD who was appointed on 9 March 2011.- Origins and etymology :...

 in the Dáil and a participant in the Easter Rising

Easter Rising

The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...

 of 1916. Her mother, County Tipperary

County Tipperary

County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...

-born Margaret Browne (or de Brún), a teacher at Alexandra College

Alexandra College

Alexandra College is a private, single-sex school located in Milltown, Dublin, Ireland. It serves girls from ages 4 to 19 as boarding or day pupils. The school is one of the most prestigious in Ireland and ranks highly in Leaving Certificate results tables...

, was also an Irish republican. Her uncle, Monsignor

Monsignor

Monsignor, pl. monsignori, is the form of address for those members of the clergy of the Catholic Church holding certain ecclesiastical honorific titles. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian monsignore, from the French mon seigneur, meaning "my lord"...

 Pádraig de Brún

Pádraig de Brún

Monsignor Pádraig de Brún was an Irish clergyman, mathematician and classical scholar, who served as President of University College Galway....

, 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

Conor Cruise O'Brien

Conor Cruise O'Brien often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, he always acknowledge values of, as he saw, the two irreconcilable traditions...

, 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

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

 and she is today one of the leading authorities on Munster Irish

Munster Irish

Munster Irish is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Dingle Peninsula Gaeltacht of west Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in Cape Clear Island off the coast of west Cork, in West Muskerry; Coolea,...

. She is a prolific writer in Irish. As a member of Aosdána

Aosdána

Aosdána is an Irish association of Artists. It was created in 1981 on the initiative of a group of writers and with support from the Arts Council of Ireland. Membership, which is by invitation from current members, is limited to 250 individuals; before 2005 it was limited to 200...

 she became a key opponent of the Catholic convert and nationalist Francis Stuart

Francis Stuart

Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart was an Irish writer. His novels have been described as having a thrusting modernist iconoclasm. Awarded the highest artistic accolade in Ireland before his death in 2000, his unwillingness to take a clear moral stance with regard to his years spent in Nazi...

, a one-time son-in-law of Maud Gonne

Maud Gonne

Maud Gonne MacBride was an English-born Irish revolutionary, feminist and actress, best remembered for her turbulent relationship with William Butler Yeats. Of Anglo-Irish stock and birth, she was won over to Irish nationalism by the plight of evicted people in the Land Wars...

, for his perceived anti-Semitism.

Her poem Jack and short story An Bhean Óg both have feature on the Leaving Certificate

Leaving Certificate

The Leaving Certificate Examinations , commonly referred to as the Leaving Cert is the final examination in the Irish secondary school system. It takes a minimum of two years preparation, but an optional Transition Year means that for those students it takes place three years after the Junior...

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)