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Margaret Mary 'May' McNulty was born on 5 November 1900 at 15 Warrington Place, Dublin 2, Ireland. There she lived for the rest of her life apart from the 1920s when she sojourned in Italy and Austria. I have studied May's career through the lens of a McNulty-Boylan picture postcard archive, an on-line search of her progress in Irish newspapers (as below) and archival research. According to family lore, May McNulty was a singer of sufficient talent to warrant further training in Milan commencing in 1921. She reputedly sang on Radio Éireann but no such record has been found. Neither has her singing talent featured in any Irish newspaper following an on-line search. A further search was equally fruitless in relation to her singing although her career as an international bridge player was highlighted. May McNulty moved to Austria in 1924. She received a picture postcard from Ida Enfer in 1926. It was co-signed by Enfer's eight year-old daughter, Jeannie, later a distinguished writer who also translated the work of Irish authors into German. An April 1927 picture card reveals May's move from the provincial Wiener Neustadt to the metropolis of Vienna while remaining dependent on home finance. While there May have sought to promote her singing career as suggested in a picture postcard from the noted musicologist, Harold Sheldon, who promised to reply to her letter. Contact with the family of another musicologist, Hugo Botstiber, was evident from a card received from Nana Botstiber, who urged May to write her at Vienna. Dr Felzmann, writing from Croatia in 1928, reminds us of May's singing talent: I hope you are in good health and always busy in singing? Having returned to Ireland in 1932, with no apparent sign of a singing contract, May turns to the game of contract bridge destined to become her enduring passion. Now, in her early thirties, her postcard archive peters out and is replaced by newspaper reports. May quickly establishes herself in the world of contract bridge attracting attention as Honorary Secretary of Dublin's largest Bridge Club, the Regent, in 1937. She came to national prominence in 1938 when partnering Mrs Fitzgerald to win the Ladies' Championship. Her upward momentum continued when qualifying for the Free State of Ireland Team Panel in partnership with Mrs J O'Neill. Now an established international bridge player, May McNulty was included in a team of five to represent Ireland at the 1949 European Bridge Championships in Paris. In 1951, Ireland beat Wales in their third match for the Camrose Trophy by 50 match points over 100 boards at the Portmarnock Country Club. Mrs O Giddings and Miss M McNulty, in their first Camrose partnership, played exceedingly well and showed fine judgment in selecting the best game contract. In 1952, May McNulty must have revisited memories of her continental past when playing bridge against Austria whose team included Mrs H Breithner, likely to be the second wife of the famous Viennese Mayor and social democrat, Hugo Breitner. May McNulty passed away, a single woman, in 1966. Séamus Dowling rated her as Ireland's greatest female bridge player, second only to the legendary Ruth Giddings, in Thank you, Partner: The History of Bridge in Ireland, 2009.

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Paul B McNulty writes historical fiction based on real events in 18th century Ireland. His credentials include editorship of a student magazine, The Anvil, followed by publication of scientific and popular papers during a career in Biosystems Engineering at University College Dublin (UCD). After retirement, he studied The genealogy of the Anglo-Norman Lynches who settled in Galway which unearthed a treasure-trove of stories. His first novel, Spellbound by Sibella, was published in 2013 by Club Lighthouse CLP, Canada who published his second novel The Abduction of Anne O'Donel in 2014 and his third novel A Story of the Bodkin Murders in 2015. Paul has also published his genealogical research in 2013 and a novella, A Rebel Romance in 2014, both with CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. His literary experience inspired him to write plays based on extracts from his writings. UCD Dramatic Society included a reading of his play Spellbound by Sibella in their Theatre Festival in November 2014. In October 2015, it received favourable reviews from the Theatre Development Centre, Cork and, more recently, from The Abbey Theatre and Papatango Theatre Company, London. In response to a call from the UCD Dramsoc Mini Plays Festival, Paul submitted a five-minute play Elopement which was staged on 14-16 October 2015. He has also written a second play based on an extract from his novel The Abduction of Anne O'Donel. His third play 1798: A Rebel Romance was staged as part of the Semester 3 programme of UCD Dramsoc on 18-22 April 2016. It has now been published and is available on Amazon, Doollee and StagePlays.com as well as Spellbound by Sibella. His fourth play, The Bodkin Murders, is written in the format of a court-room drama. His most recent play, Hijinks in Hibernia, is a modernized adaptation of his first play, Spellbound by Sibella. Members of The Corner Table writers group, of which Paul is a founding member, have critiqued each scene of each of his four plays.

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