Blanaid Salkeld
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Blánaid Salkeld (born Florence Ffrench Mullen; 1880 – 1959) was an Irish poet, dramatist, actor, and publisher, whose well-known literary salon was attended by, among others, Patrick Kavanagh and Flann O'Brien.
Early life and familyEdit
Salkeld was born Florence Ffrench Mullen in Chittagong on 10 August 1880, and grew up in Dublin on Fitzwilliam Street. Her father, Lt Colonel Jarlath ffrench-Mullen, a doctor in the Indian Medical Service,<ref name="Allen">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":1" /> was a friend of Rabindranath Tagore and also introduced her to the poetry of Keats.<ref name=":1" /> She had at least one brother, Padraic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She married Henry Salkeld in 1902 and spent the next six years in India with her husband, who worked in the Indian Civil Service, living in Dacca and Bombay. She returned to Dublin with her son Cecil, in 1910 following the death of her husband in 1909.<ref name="Allen" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Though some accounts have Salkeld back in Dublin as early as 1906.<ref name=":1" />
CareerEdit
In Dublin, she joined the Abbey Players as an actor, using the Irish form of her name, Blánaid (then spelled Blathnaid) and the stage name Nell Byrne. She played the lead role in George Fitzmaurice's three-act play The Country Dressmaker.<ref name=":1" /> She started writing verse plays in the 1930s, and one of these, Scarecrow Over the Corn, was staged in 1941 at the Gate Theatre with stage sets designed by Louis le Brocquy. Salkeld contributed numerous book reviews to The Dublin Magazine, Irish Writing, and The Bell.<ref name="Allen" /> She translated Akhmatova, Bruisov, Blok, and Pushkin from the Russian into English. The salons she hosted in her home were frequented by Kate O'Brien, Arland Ussher, Patrick Kavanagh, Flann O'Brien, and Micheál Mac Liammóir.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> Her first volume of poetry, Hello Eternity, was praised by Samuel Beckett.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> She founded the Irish Women's Writers' Club with Dorothy Macardle in 1933.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
She co-founded the Gayfield Press with her son, Cecil,<ref name="DTTP">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> in 1937. It operated from the garden shed at their home at 43 Morehampton Road until 1946. The press was a small Adana wooden hand press. The Salkelds later loaned the press to Liam and Josephine Miller in 1951, with which they founded the Dolmen Press.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
During the preparations for the Easter Rising, a room on the first floor of 130 St Stephen's Green which she had lent to Thomas MacDonagh was his headquarters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}.</ref>
Salkeld died in Dublin in 1959. Her granddaughter Beatrice married Brendan Behan.<ref name="Allen" /> Her work is considered overlooked within the canon of early 20th century Irish poetry, as it was neither of the Celtic revival or modernist.<ref name=":0" />
PoetryEdit
Salkeld published five books of poetry:
- Hello, Eternity (Elkin Mathews 1933)
- A Dubliner (Dublin: Gayfield 1942)
- The Fox’s Covert (JM Dent 1935)
- The engine is left running (Gayfield 1937)
- Experiment In Error (Aldington, Kent: Hand & Flower Press 1955)<ref name="Allen" />