Mary Devenport O'Neill (3 August 1879 – 1967) was an

Irish poet This is a list of notable poets with Wikipedia pages, who were born or raised in Ireland or hold Irish citizenship. Abbreviations for the languages of their writings: E: English; F: French; I: Irish (); L: Latin; R: Russian A–D * Adomnán ...

and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and a friend and colleague of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, George Russell, and Austin Clarke.

Early life and education

Mary Devenport O'Neill was born Mary Devenport on 3 August 1879 in Barrack Street,

Loughrea Loughrea ( ; ) is a town in County Galway, Ireland. The town lies to the north of a range of wooded hills, the Slieve Aughty Mountains, and the lake from which it takes its name. The town's cathedral, St Brendan's, dominates the town's skyline ...

, County Galway. She was the daughter of RIC sub-constable, John Devenport, and his wife Bridget (née Burke). She attended the Dominican convent, Eccles Street,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

before enrolling in the Metropolitan School of Art from 1898 to 1903. In 1900 she won the year's prize in the School of Art. She appears to have considered teaching as a career, as she is listed on the college register as a teacher in training from 1901 to 1903. It was while an art student that she started to correspond with the writer she admired, Joseph O'Neill. Their relationship developed, and the couple married on 19 June 1908, settling in Kenilworth Square, Dublin.

Career

Many of her husband's friends disapproved of her modern and unconventional ideas, but she was popular with "the Rathgar Group" who attended George Russell's Sunday salons. After a few years, O'Neill established her own salon referred to as "Thursdays at home", attended by Russell,

Padraic Colum Padraic Colum (8 December 1881 – 11 January 1972) was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Irish Literary Revival. Early life Col ...

Richard Irvine Best Richard Irvine Best (17 January 1872 – 25 September 1959), often known as R. I. Best, was an Irish scholar who specialised in Celtic Studies. Best was born into a Protestant family in Derry and educated at Foyle College before working for ...

, Frank O'Connor,

Francis Stuart Henry Francis Montgomery Stuart (29 April 19022 February 2000) was an Irish writer. He was awarded one of the highest artistic accolades in Ireland, being elected a Saoi of Aosdána, before his death in 2000. His years in Nazi Germany led to a g ...

and

Iseult Gonne Iseult Lucille Germaine Gonne (6 August 1894 – 22 March 1954) was the daughter of the Irish republican revolutionary Maud Gonne and the French politician and journalist Lucien Millevoye. She married the novelist Francis Stuart in 1920. ...

. She became particularly close to Yeats, who she confided in. Yeats recorded their weekly consultations in his diary while working on ''A Vision'' (1925). In his ''Oxford anthology of English verse'' from 1936, he included one of O'Neill's poems. In 1917, she contributed lyrics to her husband's play ''The kingdom maker''. She published her only book in 1929, ''Prometheus and other poems''. After this she occasionally contributed primarily modernist plays and poetry to ''

The Dublin Magazine ''The Dublin Magazine'' was an Irish literature, Irish literary journal founded and edited by the Irish poetry, poet Seumas O'Sullivan (real name James Sullivan Starkey) and published in ''Dublin'' by "Dublin Publishers, Ltd., 9 Commercial Buil ...

'', ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'' and '' The Bell''. O'Neill collaborated with Austin Clarke from the Lyric Theatre Company on her plays ''Bluebeard'' (1933) and ''Cain'' (1945).

Later life

O'Neill suffered with poor health, which saw her and her husband spending extended periods in the south of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

and Switzerland. They sold their home in Dublin in August 1950 and moved to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard dialect, Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department in France. The Nice urban unit, agg ...

, with the intention of settling there. However, due to rapidly depleting finances they were forced to return to Ireland in April 1951. From then they rented a cottage in

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has a ...

from their friend Con Curran. When her husband died in 1953, O'Neill went to live with relatives in Dublin. She died there in 1967.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Mary Devenport 1879 births 1967 deaths Irish dramatists and playwrights Irish modernist poets Modernist women writers Irish women dramatists and playwrights Irish women poets Writers from County Galway Date of death missing Alumni of the National College of Art and Design People from Loughrea