Meini, the Blasket Nurse

by Leslie Matson

Overview

First published in 1996. This is the captivating life story of a remarkable woman, Méiní Dunlevy. Born in Massachusetts of Kerry parents, Méiní was reared in her grandparent's house in Dunquin. When she was nineteen, she eloped with an island widower to the Great Blasket, a remote island off the coast of Kerry, Ireland, where she worked as a nurse and midwife for thirty-six years. Returning widowed to Dunquin, she died in 1967, aged 91.

Méiní's story, recorded by the author from her own accounts and those of her friends and relatives in Dunquin, is an evocation of a forceful, spicy personality and a compelling reconstruction of a unique way of life that has exercised an enduring fascination for readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781856351331
Publisher:	Mercier Press
Publication date:	09/18/1996
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.11(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Leslie Matson was born in Cork in 1930 and studied Modern Literature in Trinity College, Dublin, from which he holds the degrees of M.Litt. and MA. He taught French at Newtown School in 1952 and again from 1959 to 1977 under Liam Glynn and Maurice Wigham and was senior master from 1973 to 1977. He was headmaster of Sligo Grammar School for five years. In 1954, when he first visited it, he developed an interest in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht, particularly Dunquin and the Blasket Islands. He has done extensive research on the Blasket people, which resulted in a biographical study of the 125 inhabitants of those islands most frequently referred to in the literature. In 1996 he published Méiní, the Blasket Nurse (Mercier Press), the biography of an unforgettable old friend who had been midwife on the Blaskets for thirty-six years.