Máire Mhac an tSaoi
Alternate portrait:
Genres: Poet, Lexicographer
Ealaíontóir, léirmheastóir agus abhcóide poiblí ar son na healaíne dúchais ab ea Máire. Duine a chuaigh i gcion go mór uirthi ná a huncail, an Moinsíneoir Pádraig de Brún. D’fhreastail sí ar Ollscoil na hÉireann, Baile Átha Cliath, agus ar an Institut des Hautes Études en Sorbonne. Rinne sí staidéar ar theangacha agus ar an Léann Ceilteach. D’oibrigh sí sa Roinn Gnóthaí Eachtracha ar seirbhís sa Fhrainc, sa Spáinn, i Strasbourg agus ag na Náisiúin Aontaithe. Bhí Máire mar bhall d’fhoireann an English-Irish Dictionary (1959) faoi eagarthóireacht an Ollaimh Tomás de Bhaldraithe. Bhronn Ollscoil na hÉireann dochtúireacht oinigh sa Léann Ceilteach uirthi i 1991. Áirítear í ar fhilí móra Gaeilge na linne seo. Bhí an-eolas teicniúil aici ar fhoirmeacha traidisiúnta agus ar an nGaeilge Chlasaiceach. Chleacht sí stíl thomhaiste ina cuid filíochta a thugann filíocht na scol chun cuimhne - in ainneoin gurbh fhile idirnáisiúnta, nua-aoiseach í. Ar a saothar tá na cnuasaigh filíochta Margadh na Saoire (1956), Codladh an Ghaiscígh (1973), Shoa agus Dánta Eile (1999); an saothar taighde Dhá Sgéal Artúraíochta (1946), an nóibhille A Bhean Óg Ón ... (2001), a dírbheathaisnéis The Same Age as the State (2003), a leabhar staire ar Phiaras Feiritéar, Cérbh í Meg Russell? (2008), agus ar Ghearóid Iarla Scéal Ghearóid Iarla (2011).
Máire Mhac an tSaoi is amongst the most important Irish-language poets. She lived a remarkable life — she was the first woman to be called to the bar in Ireland and also the first woman to make it into the Department of Foreign Affairs through public competition. She published many highly acclaimed volumes of verse, articles, short stories and translations. Máire’s father was Seán MacEntee, a founding member of Fianna Fáil who went on to serve as Tánaiste. Her mother was a teacher. She spent much of her childhood and early teens in the Gaeltacht in Dún Chaoin and says it was here that she internalised the rhymes and rhythms of the Irish language. "They just took it for granted the way they put rhymes together." Her poems often speak of love, whether love of a mother or a partner, and she has become associated with chronicling the female experience in her poems. Her reputation for revolutionising Irish poetry in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s comes as much from her treatment of love in those poems as from what she did with the form. "I was very lucky to write in Irish. If I had used the word 'bed' in a love poem in English, it would never have been published!"
