Ethna MacCarthy

Ethna MacCarthy (2 April 1903 – 24 May 1959) was an Irish poet and paediatrician.

Early life and education MacCarthy was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry. on 2 April 1903 to Brendan MacCarthy, a doctor and a medical inspector in the Local Government Board, and Eleanor McCarthy (née Dexter). Her paternal grandfather was the poet Denis Florence MacCarthy. She had two brothers Denis Florence and Desmond, and a sister. The family moved to Dublin in the 1900s, when her father took up a position at the headquarters of the Local Government Board in the Custom House. They lived at "Desmond", Sandymount Ave., Ballsbridge. It is likely that MacCarthy attended the local convent school where her aunt, Mary Stanislaus MacCarthy, lived as part of the Dominican Convent, Blackrock. MacCarthy enrolled in a secretarial college, going on to the Royal Academy of Music, and then entering Trinity College Dublin (TCD) in 1922 as a foundation scholar. There she studied French and Spanish, attaining a BA in 1926 and an MA in 1937. Johnston wrote the poem To Ethna for her. She began a long-term relationship with Con Leventhal, with the couple marrying in 1956 after the death of his wife.