Daly, Leo (1920–2010), writer, was born on 23 January 1910 in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, one of seven children (six boys and a girl) of William Daly, a railway engine driver, and his wife Rebecca (née Forman). Leo was educated locally at the Presentation convent, St Mary's CBS Boy's National School, and the Hevey Institute (latterly, Coláiste Mhuire). He became a psychiatric nurse, working for twenty-six years in St Loman's Hospital, Mullingar, where he was well regarded for his professional and caring attitude. Daly's time at St Loman's was a period of transition in the treatment of mental illness, which saw important changes in attitudes and therapies and increased levels of inspection for hospitals. Daly generally welcomed this, but not all of his colleagues did; some regarded their positions as sinecures and were suspicious of innovation and openness. This greatly saddened Daly and probably contributed to his decision to take early retirement in 1966. While working, and particularly after retirement, he cultivated his many interests, including photography, and took a training course in the Agfa International School of Colour Photography in Edenbridge, Kent, England. His work was published in various newspapers, locally, in Ireland and in America, and he had a photographic studio in the town.
Daly loved drama, and believed that theatre had an important role to play in infusing life into local communities. He was a founder of Mullingar's Little Theatre, and from the 1940s onwards produced and acted in many of its plays. He also wrote scripts for local pantomimes, drama reviews for local papers, and several plays, including 'Death's echo', which won awards in the first Irish drama festival, held in Mullingar in 1947. His play 'The ghost strikes back', staged in 2000, was on a subject which occupied his attention throughout his career: the links between James Joyce (qv) and the town of Mullingar. His book James Joyce and the Mullingar connection (1975), not well regarded locally at the time (as Joyce was deemed a profane writer), was later acknowledged for its contribution to Joyce scholarship.
As well as literary history, Daly was also prominent in local history, and in 1978 was founding chairman of Westmeath Archaeological and Historical Society. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the area's history, particularly that of medieval and pre-medieval Mullingar, and was editor of The midlands (1979), a collection of writings on Irish midland counties. He edited a 1999 re-issue of a translation by Kuno Meyer (qv) of a Life of Colmán of Lynn (Betha Colmáin Lainne), a saint associated with Mullingar, and dedicated it to all those scholars, clerics and lay people who devoted themselves to the preservation of the region's literary, ecclesiastical and historical heritage. His numerous articles on various phases of Mullingar's history appeared in local publications and volumes of essays. He read some of them on Sunday miscellany and other RTÉ radio programmes in the rich Mullingar accent he never lost, and several were collected in Titles (1981). His book Austin friars from the Black Valley mountains in Wales to the midland plains of Ireland (1994) was based on extensive research in Ireland and in Wales. Daly was also a strong supporter of the Irish language and a great lover of the Aran Islands. He escaped to the islands whenever he could, and published a travel guide illustrated with his own photographs, Oileáin Árann (1975).
His only novel, The rock garden (1984), was set in Aran, and dealt with some of the social issues confronted by the islanders; it was the first novel published by the Lilliput Press, then based in Westmeath, and was read on RTÉ radio in 1987. Daly had had some success with writing short stories; several appeared in the 'New Irish writing' column of the Irish Press in the 1970s. As a photojournalist, he contributed widely to American and Irish publications. He was a frequent contributor to the Westmeath Examiner – editing its centenary publication in 1982 – was drama critic for the Midland Herald and the Roscommon Herald, and wrote occasionally for Cara, the Aer Lingus in-flight magazine. A greatly admired and respected figure in his native town, he was honoured by Mullingar Town Commission (1991), awarded the Westmeath Cultural Endeavour Award (1995), and was described as 'the essence of Mullingar' (Nolan, 51). He donated a collection of photographs and other archive material to the Westmeath County Library Service, which holds a bronze bust of the author.
Leo Daly married Brigid Murphy from Mullingar in 1943; they had five daughters and three sons. Daly lived until he was 90, and died in St Clair's Nursing Home in Mullingar on 3 July 2010. He was buried at Ballyglass cemetery, Mullingar.