Ethna MacCarthy
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Ethna MacCarthy (2 April 1903 – 24 May 1959) was an Irish poet and
paediatrician Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their yout ...
.


Early life and education

MacCarthy was born in
Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...
, County Londonderry on 2 April 1903. Her father was Brendan MacCarthy, a doctor and a medical inspector in the Local Government Board, and Eleanor McCarthy (née Dexter). Her paternal grandfather was the poet
Denis Florence MacCarthy Denis Florence MacCarthy (26 May 1817 – 9 April 1882) was an Irish poet, translator, and biographer, from Dublin. Biography MacCarthy was born in Lower O'Connell Street, Dublin, on 26 May 1817, and educated there and at St Patrick's College, M ...
. She had two brothers Denis Florence and Desmond, and a sister. The family moved to
Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
in the 1900s, when her father took up a position at the headquarters of the Local Government Board in the
Custom House A custom house or customs house was traditionally a building housing the offices for a jurisdictional government whose officials oversaw the functions associated with importing and exporting goods into and out of a country, such as collecting ...
. They lived at "Desmond", Sandymount Ave.,
Ballsbridge Ballsbridge () (from historic Ball's Bridge) is an affluent neighbourhood of the city of Dublin, the capital of Ireland. The area is largely situated north and west of a three-arch stone bridge across the River Dodder, on the south side of the ...
. It is likely that MacCarthy attended the local convent school where her aunt, Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy, lived as part of the Dominican Convent, Blackrock. MacCarthy enrolled in a secretarial college, going on to the Royal Academy of Music, and then entering
Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...
in 1922 as a foundation scholar. There she studied French and Spanish, attaining a BA in 1926 and an MA in 1937.


Career

MacCarthy became a lecturer in French and Provençal in TCD. She was remembered by a contemporary as having "beauty and wit threw a vivid light over the front square of Trinity College and over the lectures which were the only function at which, until quite recently, the male and female undergraduates were permitted to forgather. Her presence illumined those occasions." She was also described as a
feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
before the coining of the phrase. She had many admirers due to her outgoing nature, including
Denis Johnston (William) Denis Johnston (18 June 1901 – 8 August 1984) was an Irish writer. Born in Dublin, he wrote mostly plays, but also works of literary criticism, a book-length biographical essay of Jonathan Swift, a memoir and an eccentric work on c ...
and
Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...
. MacCarthy appears in Beckett's ''Dream of fair to middling women'' as "the Alba", and is said to have been the inspiration for the girl in the punt in ''Krapp's last tape''. MacCarthy is reputed to have been Beckett's first love. Johnston wrote the poem ''To Ethna'' for her. She began a long-term relationship with Con Leventhal, with the couple marrying in 1956 after the death of his wife. In the mid-1930s MacCarthy entered the TCD school of physic, graduating in 1941 with a
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education trad ...
followed by an MD in 1946. By this time she was interested in paediatrics, taking the position of the physician to the children's dispensary at the
Royal City of Dublin Hospital The Royal City of Dublin Hospital () was a health facility on Baggot Street, Dublin, Ireland. The building from which the hospital operated, which was vacant as of early 2024, is a protected structure. History The hospital was first established ...
. She left this post in 1954, and was intending on joining the
World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...
, but failed the obligatory physical examination. She made a few contributions to the ''
Irish Journal of Medical Science The ''Irish Journal of Medical Science'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1832 by Robert Kane (chemist), Robert Kane as the ''Dublin Journal of Medical & Chemical Science''. Besides Kane, it had distinguished edi ...
'' on topics relating to public health problems.


Poetry

Much like her grandfather and aunt, MacCarthy was a poet in her own right. Verses such as ''The invitation'', ''Lullaby'' and ''Clinic'' were published in '' The Dublin Magazine'' along with her translations from German and Spanish. In 1937, '' Ireland Today'' published her short story ''Flight''. Her one-act play, ''The uninvited'', was published in ''The Dublin Magazine'' in 1951. MacCarthy was deemed to be "a good minor poet", and was included in a number of anthologies, including the 1948 ''New Irish poets'' by
Devin-Adair Publishing Company The Devin-Adair Publishing Company (1911–1981) was an American conservative publishing house. History Henry Garrity created the publishing house in 1911 in New York City. His son Devin Garrity inherited it in 1939. It moved from New York C ...
.


Death and legacy

MacCarthy died on 24 May 1959 at the East Ham Memorial Hospital, London, having suffered from
throat cancer Head and neck cancer is a general term encompassing multiple cancers that can develop in the head and neck region. These include cancers of the mouth, tongue, gums and lips ( oral cancer), voice box ( laryngeal), throat ( nasopharyngeal, orophar ...
for a year. Over her final year, Beckett corresponded with her regularly. He sent her violets picked near this home in Ussy with the note: "This is just my heart to you and my hand in yours and a few wood violets I'd take from their haunt for no one else." Beckett's letters to her are held in the
University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
at Austin. The TCD collection of Denis Johnston papers include a number of her letter. Professor Eoin O'Brien owns a drawing of her by Seán O'Sullivan. Material by MacCarthy is also held within the TCD Con Leventhal collection.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacCarthy, Ethna 1903 births 1959 deaths People from Coleraine, County Londonderry 20th-century Irish women writers 20th-century Irish poets Writers from County Londonderry Medical doctors from County Londonderry Irish women health professionals