Shevawn Lynam (born Dublin, 16 April 1914 - 4 November 1998) was an Irish novelist and journalist. She was the Spanish-language specialist with the
BBC and
Ministry of Information during
World War II.
Early life
Shevawn Lynam was the pen name of Joan Lynam (Shevawn is the anglicisation of 'Siobhan', the Gaelic version of 'Joan').
She was born Sybil Mary Joan Lynam in
Dublin, Ireland
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...
on 16 April 1914. Her parents were Charles, engineer, and Margaret "Mai" Lynam (née Moran), both from
Galway. She had one brother, Robert. When her parents separated, custody of the children was awarded to their father. Lynam moved around a lot as a child, living with her paternal grandmother, Agnes Lynam, in Connemara, County Galway, and later in France.
She lived in
Spain in her early twenties,
[J.L. "Joan (Shevawn) Lynam". Obituary. 'The Irish Times' online, 19 November 1998, n.p.. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/joan-shevawn-lynam-1.216416 Accessed 1 July 2018.] probably working as a governess. She suffered from
tuberculosis and was sent to a sanatorium in
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
for two years.
Career
As a journalist, she covered the
Spanish Civil War for ''
The Irish Times''. She worked as a secretary for various prominent artists and writers, including
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...
and
John Betjeman
Sir John Betjeman (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architecture, ...
.
In the late 1940s, she wrote and hosted her own radio programme, called 'Hither and Yon', for the Irish national broadcaster
Radio Eireann
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitt ...
. She lived in Paris for ten years, working as the editor of the NATO Newsletter international affairs.
Lynam also worked for the
Marshall Plan and
UNESCO.
In 1963, she returned to Ireland to be the editorial publicity officer at the
Irish Tourist Board until 1971.
She published an acclaimed biography of the eighteenth-century pioneer of animal rights
Richard Martin, nicknamed the 'King of Connemara'. Her best-known work is her novel ''The Spirit and the Clay,'' a choral story which follows the lives of several Basque men and women working in the underground resistance against the
Franco dictatorship, in the Basque Country. The novel is based on real-life stories retold to Lynam by a Basque priest in exile. It was translated to several languages. It was published in French as ''The Tree of Guernica''.
Lynam is described in the autobiography of John Betjeman, ''Summoned by Bells''.
[John Betjeman, 'Summoned by Bells', London: John Murray, 1960.]
She died in St Columcille's Hospital, Loughlinstown, County Dublin on 4 November 1998, and is buried at Shanganagh cemetery.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynam, Shevawn
Journalists from Dublin (city)
Irish women writers
Irish women journalists
1914 births
1998 deaths
Irish expatriates in Spain