Margaret Dobbs
{{short description|Irish scholar and playwright}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Margaret Dobbs
| image = Margaret_Dobbs.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = Margaret Emmeline Conway Dobbs
| birth_date = 19 November 1871
| birth_place = Dublin, Ireland
| death_date = {{death-date and age|2 January 1962|19 November 1871}}
| death_place = Portnagolan House, Cushendall, County Antrim, Northern Ireland
| nationality = Irish
| other_names =
| known_for =
| occupation = writer, scholar
}}
Margaret Emmeline Dobbs (19 November 1871 – 2 January 1962) was an Irish scholar and playwright, best known for her work to preserve the Irish language.{{cite web |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/an-irishman-s-diary-1.35550 |title=AN IRISHMAN'S DIARY |newspaper=Irishtimes.com |date=20 Mar 1996 |author=Sean Mac Reamoinn|accessdate= 3 November 2016}}{{cite web |url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p38288.htm|author=Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh|title= Burke's Irish Family Records|location= London, U.K.|publisher= Burkes Peerage Ltd, 1976}}{{cite web |url=http://dib.cambridge.org/browse.do?searchBy=&_currentPage=57&_pageSize=50&_sortBy=name&_sortOrder= |title=Dictionary of Irish Biography - Cambridge University Press |newspaper=Dib.cambridge.org |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
Life and career
Dobbs was born at 41 Lower Leeson Street in Dublin on 19 November 1871, the fourth child to barrister Conway Edward Dobbs and Sara Mulholland.{{cite web |url=https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/display-pdf.jsp?pdfName=d-45-2-16-079 |title=Irish Genealogy |newspaper=Https |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}} Her father was Justice of the Peace for County Antrim, High Sheriff for Carrickfergus in 1875 and High Sheriff for County Louth in 1882. The family spent time living in Dublin where Dobbs was born.{{cite web |url=http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Cushendall/Faughil/114481/ |title=National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911 |newspaper=Census.nationalarchives.ie |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}{{cite web |url=https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/details/d77f5b0207944 |title=Irish Genealogy |newspaper=Https |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}} She attempted to learn Irish. However, when her father died in 1898 her mother moved the family back to Glenariff.{{cite web |url=http://antrimhistory.net/margaret-dobbs/ |title=Margaret Dobbs |newspaper=Antrimhistory.net |date= 4 December 2005|author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}{{cite book|author1=Eamon Phoenix|author2=Padraic O'Cleireachain|title=Feis Na NGleann: A Century of Gaelic Culture in the Antrim Glens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=92zTnb5r-mYC&pg=PA37|year=2005|publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation|isbn=978-1-903688-49-6|pages=37–}}{{cite web |url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/viewPerson/405 |title=The Dictionary of Ulster Biography |newspaper=Newulsterbiography.co.uk |date= |author=Kate Newmann|accessdate= 3 November 2016}} Her mother was Sarah Mulholland, daughter of St Clair Kelvin Mulholland Eglantine, Co. Down.{{cite web |url=http://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=18 |title=DOBBS, Margaret (1871-1962) |newspaper=Ainm.ie |date= |author1=Dermot Walsh|author2=Mary Murphy|accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
Dobbs was interested in learning Irish and found it easier to learn in Donegal where it was still spoken. Her first teacher was Hugh Flaitile. She attended the Irish College at Cloughaneely in the Donegal Gaeltacht. She brought the idea of promoting the language to the Glens of Antrim and her circle of friends. Dobbs was one of the small number of Protestant women interested in the Gaelic revival.{{cite book|author1=Peter Hulme|author2=Russell McDougall|title=Writing, Travel and Empire: Colonial Narratives of Other Cultures|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4oXJL2NldlIC&pg=PA180|date=15 September 2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-304-9|pages=180–}}{{cite book|author=Ann Matthews|title=Renegades: Irish Republican Women 1900-1922|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pzYkTYi3JRgC&pg=PA94|year=2010|publisher=Mercier Press Ltd|isbn=978-1-85635-684-8|pages=94–}}
1904 saw the "Great Feis" in Antrim and Dobbs was a founder member of the Feis na nGleann committee and later a tireless literary secretary. In 1946, the Feis committee decided to honour her by presenting her with an illuminated address. It can be seen today at Portnagolan House with its stained glass windows commemorating a great Irishwoman. During her speech she said: ‘Ireland is a closed book to those who do not know her language. No one can know Ireland properly until one knows the language. Her treasures are hidden as a book unopened. Open the book and learn to love your language’.{{cite book|author=J. MacPherson|title=Women and the Irish Nation: Gender, Culture and Irish Identity, 1890-1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6q1chFiVU9EC&pg=PT117|date=16 October 2012|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-28458-7|pages=117–}}
Dobbs wrote seven plays, published by Dundalgan Press in 1920, though only three were performed. The Doctor and Mrs McAuley won the Warden trophy for one-act plays at the Belfast festival in 1913. However her plays were generally not a success and after 1920 she never wrote another. She continued to work on historical and archaeological studies and her articles were published in the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, in a German magazine for Celtic studies, in the French Revue Cletique and in the Irish magazine Eriu.{{cite web |url=http://www.vanhamel.nl/vhcodecs/index.php?title=Dobbs_(Margaret_E.)&redirect=no |title=Dobbs (Margaret E.) • CODECS: Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies |newspaper=Vanhamel.nl |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
Roger Casement was a good friend and although Dobbs never made her political opinions known she contributed to his defence costs when he was accused of treason.{{cite book|author=Angus Mitchell|title=Roger Casement: 16Lives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zGqNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT110|date=23 January 2014|publisher=O'Brien Press|isbn=978-1-84717-608-0|pages=110–}} Although her political views were not clearly known Dobbs had been a member of the Gaelic League and in the executive of Cumann na mBan.{{cite book|author1=Alan Hayes|author2=Diane Urquhart|title=The Irish Women's History Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B6UIQXpF6M4C&pg=PA63|date=January 2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-19914-8|pages=63–}}{{cite web |url=http://www.wynnshotel.ie/1916.html |title=Ireland 1916 Rising History Dublin |newspaper=Wynnshotel.ie |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
She died at her home, Portnagolan House, Cushendall, on 2 January 1962.
Further reading
- {{cite book|author=Seán Duffy|title=Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a7uTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA115|date=15 January 2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-94824-5|pages=115–}}
- {{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/journalofroyalso42roya/journalofroyalso42roya_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland" |newspaper=Https |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/I3000012/header.html |title=TEI header for Tochmarc Éadaine |newspaper=Ucc.ie |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.ucc.ie/celt/Eriu1-46.pdf |title=Eriu |newspaper=Ucc.ie |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/feis-na-ngleann |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20170706114426/http://www.culturenorthernireland.org/features/heritage/feis-na-ngleann |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 July 2017 |title=Feis na nGleann |newspaper=Culturenorthernireland.org |date= |author= |accessdate=3 November 2016 }}
- {{cite web |url=http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=17814 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071455/http://www.placenamesni.org/resultdetails.php?entry=17814 |url-status=dead |archive-date=5 March 2016 |title=Place Names NI - Home |newspaper=Placenamesni.org |date= |author= |accessdate=3 November 2016 }}
- {{cite web |url=http://sources.nli.ie/Record/PS_UR_031312 |title=Holdings: Obituary of Margaret Emmeline Dobbs. |newspaper=Sources.nli.ie |author= |year=1962 |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
- {{cite book|author=M. Sihra|title=Women in Irish Drama: A Century of Authorship and Representation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLaGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA222|date=14 March 2007|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|isbn=978-0-230-80145-5|pages=222–}}
- {{cite web |url=http://findingaids.nationalarchives.ie/index.php?simpleSearchSbm=true&category=1&subcategory=9&searchDescTxt=Margaret+Dobbs&simpleSearchSbm=Search#searchfocus |title= Women in 20th-Century Ireland, 1922-1966: Sources from the Department of the Taoiseach |newspaper=National Archives of Ireland |date= |author= |accessdate= 3 November 2016}}
- Dobbs, Margaret E. (1947). "The Prefix “Mess” in Irish Personal Names", The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 77(2), 147–149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25510622
References
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Category:Cumann na mBan members
Category:20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights