Meini: The Blasket Nurse

First published in 1996. This is the captivating life story of a remarkable woman, Méinي Dunlevy. Born in Massachusetts of Kerry parents, Méinي was reared in her grandparents 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.

Méinيs 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.