Mary E.L. Butler facts for kids

Mary E. L. Butler (1874-1920), also known as Máire de Buitléir in Irish, was an important Irish writer and a strong supporter of the Irish language. She worked hard to promote Irish culture and a sense of national pride.

Mary Ellen Butler was born in 1874. Her family came from County Clare in Ireland. She was a distant cousin of Edward Carson, a well-known political figure. To learn Irish, she often visited the Aran Islands, where the language was widely spoken. Mary became interested in Irish nationalism, which meant she wanted Ireland to be an independent country. This interest grew after she read a book called Jail Journal by John Mitchel.

From 1899 to 1904, Mary helped edit a special section for women and a page for children in a newspaper called the Irish Weekly Independent. She used these pages to encourage Irish national pride. She also joined the Gaelic League, a group dedicated to saving and promoting the Irish language. Here, she met other language lovers like Evelyn Donovan and Agnes O'Farrelly. She was part of the League's main committee for several years. In 1907, she married Thomas O'Nolan, but he passed away in 1913.

Mary was a close friend of Arthur Griffith, who founded the political party Sinn Féin. Griffith later said that Mary Butler was the first person to suggest the name "Sinn Féin" for his new group. Mary Butler passed away in Rome in 1920 and is buried there.

Mary Butler's Early Life and School

Mary Butler's family, the Butlers of County Clare, owned land and remained Catholic, unlike some other parts of their family. Her father, Peter, studied in France and was comfortable speaking French, English, and Irish.

Her mother's family, the Lamberts of Castle Ellen, County Galway, were very traditional Irish speakers. Interestingly, Mary's younger sister, Isabella, was the mother of Edward Carson. This means Edward Carson, who became a symbol for people who wanted Northern Ireland to stay part of the United Kingdom, was Mary Butler's cousin.

Mary first learned at home. Later, she went to Alexandra College in Dublin. This school was mostly for young women from Protestant backgrounds. There, she had excellent teachers for French, Italian, and German, languages she loved to study.

Even when she was young, Mary had a deep love for her home and family. This feeling grew stronger as she got older. Mary became a nationalist after she happened to read some writings by a group called Young Ireland. Like many who became interested in Irish culture, she spent time learning about the traditions of western Ireland. She visited the Aran Islands many times to experience the culture there.

Mary Butler's Work for Ireland

Mary Butler was an active member of the Gaelic League. She served on the League's main committee for several years. However, unlike some other famous women in the movement, such as Countess Markievicz or Maud Gonne, Mary did not seek a very public role.

Mary did not call herself a feminist in the way we might think of it today. She believed that for women to make progress in Ireland, they should do so within the traditional values of the country. Many of her writings focused on how women could support Irish nationalism from within their homes and families.

She wrote many articles for the League's newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis, and also for the United Irishman and other magazines. Some of her articles were later printed as small booklets.

Mary Butler's main goal was always to help make Ireland an Irish-speaking country again. It's not surprising that she was connected to Arthur Griffith. Griffith actually said that Mary was the one who came up with the name ‘Sinn Féin’. In her writings, she mainly focused on nationalism, but she always highlighted the important role women played in keeping and promoting Irish national pride at home.

Mary Butler's Writings

Mary Butler wrote often for the main magazines and newspapers of the "Irish Ireland" movement, which promoted Irish culture. Her articles appeared regularly in the Gaelic League's newspaper, An Claidheamh Soluis, and in the United Irishman. She also wrote for various Irish-American magazines.

She also wrote columns in the Irish Weekly Independent. These columns discussed topics like children's education and the role of women in the nationalist movement. Many of her articles were published separately as small booklets. Some of these included "Irish Woman and the Home Language," "Two Schools: A Contrast," and "Womanhood and Nationhood."

Mary Butler also wrote stories. In 1900, she published a collection of short stories called “A Bundle of Rushes.” Her first novel, “The Ring of Day,” was published in parts in the Irish Peasant newspaper in 1906. It then came out as a book a year later. This book was about a young woman who becomes interested in the Irish-Ireland cause. Many people believe the book was largely a self-portrait of Mary herself.

Mary Butler's Religious Beliefs

Mary Butler was a very religious Catholic. This is clear because she often wrote for the Catholic Bulletin and other Catholic magazines. Even though she had ideas about women's roles, she believed that the Church encouraged women to focus on their homes. However, she also thought women could do a lot for the Irish language revival movement from their homes.

She lived in Brittany, France, for a while with her mother before moving to Rome. Mary felt very comfortable in Brittany. She saw the local people, the Bretons, as having similar Celtic roots and sharing the same strong Catholic faith as the Irish.

In her writings for the Catholic Bulletin, she often compared the landscape of Brittany to the west coast of Ireland, noting how similar they were. She saw France and Italy as free countries and allies of Ireland. She seemed to believe that Ireland should try to be more like them politically.

She thought that people in France and Italy were very interested in Irish politics at the time. She also loved her time in Rome. The city had a long and strong history with Catholicism, and she felt the ground there was "soaked with the blood of martyrs," meaning many religious people had suffered there. She was buried in the Catholic cemetery San Lorenzo in Rome on November 29, 1920.