Emily Lucy de Burgh Daly (7 August 1859 – 13 November 1935) was an Irish

nurse Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health c ...

, writer, and traveller.

Life

Emily de Burgh Daly was born Emily Lucy French on 7 August 1859 at the family home at Clooneyquin, County Roscommon, a

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

between Elphin and

Tulsk Tulsk () is a village in County Roscommon, Ireland, on the N5 national primary road between Strokestown and Bellanagare. It is 19 km north of Roscommon town. Heritage Near Tulsk is Cruachan, an Iron Age (Gaelic) royal palace. As recou ...

. She was the fourth daughter of the nine children of Christopher French and Susan Emma French (née Percy). One of her older brothers was the humorist and songwriter

Percy French William Percy French (1 May 1854 – 24 January 1920) was an Irish songwriter, author, poet, entertainer and painter. Life French was born at Clooneyquinn House, near Tulsk, County Roscommon, the son of an Anglo-Irish landlord, Christopher F ...

. She was educated privately at home, with the children producing their own theatricals and family magazines. Daly left home in 1888, training as a nurse at the Mildmay Hospital,

Bethnal Green Bethnal Green is an area in the East End of London northeast of Charing Cross. The area emerged from the small settlement which developed around the Green, much of which survives today as Bethnal Green Gardens, beside Cambridge Heath Road. By ...

, London. After this she travelled to

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

, China, nursing and going on to take charge of a hospital for women. During her 25 years in China, she attempted to learn the language but never mastered it. When she married Charles de Burgh Daly in October 1890, she gave up nursing. Charles was the port doctor for Ningbo and director of the Church Missionary Society Hospital. The couple had at least two sons, Ulick and Arthur Charles, and one daughter, Lucy. Her sons Arthur Charles (Charlie) and Ulick both served with the

Royal Dublin Fusiliers The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an Irish infantry Regiment of the British Army created in 1881, one of eight Irish regiments raised and garrisoned in Ireland, with its home depot in Naas. The Regiment was created by the amalgamation of two Brit ...

and Lucy with the

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

in Dublin during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Her son, Charles de Burg Daly fell at Ginchy aged only 19 during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and is remembered in a WW1 memorial in St John's Church, Sandymount, Dublin. The family had moved to

Niuzhuang Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

, southern Manchuria in 1893, where they took in refugees from the Sino-Japanese war in 1894. During this time, Daly travelled around China extensively, witnessing the run up to the Boxer Rebellion and the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

, escaping the country with her children during both of those conflicts. The descriptions of these conflicts in Manchuria are detailed, accurate and harrowing. She befriended the travel writer

Isabella Bird Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop (15 October 1831 – 7 October 1904), was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Srinagar i ...

(married name Bird Bishop) then a well-known travel writer whom she met in, Manchuria. Emily's husband was recalled from Ireland in 1910 to aid in the treatment of those suffering from the

pneumonic plague Pneumonic plague is a severe lung infection caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. Symptoms include fever, headache, shortness of breath, chest pain, and coughing. They typically start about three to seven days after exposure. It is one ...

. Emily accompanied her husband back to China to assist him in dealing with the plague epidemic. The family settled back permanently in Sandymount, Dublin in 1912. Ironically, Emily's husband Charles de Burg Daly dodged a bullet from the Countess

Constance Markievicz Constance Georgine Markievicz ( pl, Markiewicz ; ' Gore-Booth; 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the firs ...

as he was sitting in the window of the University Club, St. Stephen's Green during the Easter Rising in 1916. In 1915, she published her memoirs, ''An Irishwoman in China'', in which she described the customs and people of China, and the lifestyle of Europeans living there. The book, which is illustrated also contains very detailed descriptions of the vegetation, plants and flowers of China. She edited two collections work by her brother

: ''Chronicles and Poems of Percy French'' (1922) and ''Prose, Poems and Parodies of Percy French'' (1929). She died at Priory Lodge,

Blackrock, County Dublin Blackrock () is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, northwest of Dún Laoghaire. Location and access Blackrock covers a large but not precisely defined area, rising from sea level on the coast to at White's Cross on the N11 national primary road. ...

on 13 November 1935 and is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Harold's Cross. Emily gave illustrated lectures on China around Dublin in conjunction with the publication of her China memoir in 1915. She also gave illustrated lectures on her brother William Percy French around Dublin after she published ''The Chronicles and Poems of Percy French'' in 1922.

References

4. Lowry, Bernadette 'Sounds of Manymirth on the Night's Ear Ringing Percy French (1854-1920) His Jarvey Years and Joyce's Haunted Inkbottle'. Carmen Eblana Productions, Dublin Dec 2021. ISBN 9 781914 488412 {{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Emily de Burgh 1859 births 1935 deaths Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium People in health professions from County Roscommon 20th-century Irish writers 20th-century Irish women writers Irish nurses Writers from County Roscommon