Mhac an tSaoi, Máire

Irish language poet, scholar and academic.

Máire was born in Dublin in 1922. Her father, Seán MacEntee was a veteran of the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War. He was a founding member of Fianna Fáil. Her mother Margaret Brown was also an Irish republican and a teacher. Máire studied Modern Languages and Celtic Studies at University College Dublin. She was the first woman to take up a role in the Department of Foriegn Affairs through public competition.

In 1962, she married Irish politician, writer, and historian Conor Cruise O'Brien.

Accredited with bringing modernism to Irish literature, Máire Mhac an tSaoi published many works in and on the subject of the Irish language.