Mary E. Byrne

BYRNE, Mary Elizabeth. b. Dublin, Ireland, 2 July 1880; d. Dublin, 19 January 1931. She was educated at the Dominican Convent in Dublin, and the National University of Ireland (the Roman Catholic university founded by John Henry Newman to provide higher education for Catholics parallel to that of Trinity College, Dublin). Her Irish name was Máiri Ní Bhroin, but she published much of her work as Mary E. Byrne. She was a research scholar who worked for the Board of Intermediate Education. With Myles Dillon she edited Táin Bó Fráich, one of the early examples of the Táin Bó or ‘cattle raid’ genre (‘The Cattle-Raid of Fráech’, Dublin, 1933: Fráech was a Connaught hero), and was involved in the...