Mairéad Dunlevy

Mairéad Dunlevy (31 December 1941 – 18 March 2008) was an Irish museum curator and costume expert.

Early life and education Dunlevy was born on 31 December 1941, to James Dunlevy, a general merchant in Mountcharles, County Donegal, and his wife Mairéad (Margaret) Begley. She was the eldest, sister to two boys. The family had many doctors in it including four of her father's siblings - Pearl Dunlevy was an epidemiologist working on eradicating TB. Dunlevy was educated in Glencoagh national school and Coláiste Bhríde in Falcarragh, County Donegal. She went on to teacher training college in Carysfort in Dublin and started work in the Mount Anville National school in Kilmacud. Dunlevy studied archaeology in University College Dublin by night under Rúaidhrí de Valera and followed the BA with an MA in Irish medieval combs.

She started going to the Gaeltacht in Ranafast to improve her Irish when she was nine. Dunlevy had an interest in the Irish language and in Irish traditional crafts. As a general merchant in Mountcharles, her father stocked embroidered Irish-linen, made under the care of his wife. The area had a number of cottage industries of crochet, lace and embroidery. Dunlevy was a friend of Harry Swan of Buncrana. Dunlevy was a member of Bord na Gaeilge and was chairman of Cumann Merriman. During her tenure with the latter she was responsible for running three summer schools in honour of the Irish poet Brian Merriman.