Robert Wilson Lynd (''Irish: Roibéard Ó Floinn''; 20 April 1879 – 6 October 1949) was an Irish writer, editor of poetry, urbane literary essayist,

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

Early life

He was born in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

to Robert John Lynd, a Presbyterian minister, and Sarah Rentoul Lynd, the second of seven children. Lynd's paternal great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to Ireland. Lynd was educated at

Royal Belfast Academical Institution The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is ...

, where he befriended James Winder Good and Paul Henry, and studied at Queen's University. His father served a term as Presbyterian Church Moderator as one of a long line of Presbyterian clergy in the family. A 2003 essayist on Lynd recounts that his "maternal grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather had all been Presbyterian clergymen."

Literary career

Lynd began as a journalist, with James Winder Good, on ''

The Northern Whig The Northern Whig is a bar housed in a historical building in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is in the Cathedral Quarter, just to the north of the Belfast City Centre. At various times during its history it has been a gentleman's club and a new ...

'' in

. He moved to London in 1901, via

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, sharing accommodation with Paul Henry who was establishing himself as an artist. Firstly he wrote drama criticism, for ''Today'', edited by

Jerome K. Jerome Jerome Klapka Jerome (2 May 1859 – 14 June 1927) was an English writer and humourist, best known for the comic travelogue ''Three Men in a Boat'' (1889). Other works include the essay collections '' Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow'' (1886) an ...

. He also wrote for the '' Daily News'' (later the ''

News Chronicle The ''News Chronicle'' was a British daily newspaper. Formed by the merger of '' The Daily News'' and the ''Daily Chronicle'' in 1930, it ceased publication on 17 October 1960,''Liberal Democrat News'' 15 October 2010, accessed 15 October 2010 be ...

''), being its literary editor 1912–47. The Lynds were literary hosts, in the group including

J. B. Priestley John Boynton Priestley (; 13 September 1894 – 14 August 1984) was an English novelist, playwright, screenwriter, broadcaster and social commentator. His Yorkshire background is reflected in much of his fiction, notably in ''The Good Compa ...

. They were on good terms also with

Hugh Walpole Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (13 March 18841 June 1941) was an English novelist. He was the son of an Anglican clergyman, intended for a career in the church but drawn instead to writing. Among th ...

. Priestley, Walpole and Sylvia Lynd were founding committee members of the Book Society. Irish guests included

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

and James Stephens. On one occasion reported by Victor Gollancz in Reminiscences of Affection, p. 90, Joyce intoned '' Anna Livia Plurabelle'' to his own piano accompaniment. He used the pseudonym Y.Y (Ys, or ''wise'') in writing for the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

''. According to C. H. Rolph's ''Kingsley'' (1973), Lynd's weekly essay, which ran from 1913 to 1945, was "irreplaceable". In 1941, editor

Kingsley Martin Basil Kingsley Martin (28 July 1897 – 16 February 1969) usually known as Kingsley Martin, was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the ''New Statesman'' from 1930 to 1960. Early life He was the son of (Dav ...

decided to alternate it with pieces by

James Bridie James Bridie (3 January 1888 in Glasgow – 29 January 1951 in Edinburgh) was the pseudonym of a Scottish playwright, screenwriter and physician whose real name was Osborne Henry Mavor.Daniel Leary (1982) ''Dictionary of Literary Biography: ...

on Ireland, but the experiment was not at all a success.

Political activism

Attendance at a performance in London of

John Millington Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly r ...

's play ''

Riders to the Sea ''Riders to the Sea'' is a play written by Irish Literary Renaissance playwright John Millington Synge. It was first performed on 25 February 1904 at the Molesworth Hall, Dublin, by the Irish National Theater Society with Helen Laird playing Ma ...

'' aroused his Irish Nationalist sympathie

These were further radicalised by the Home Rule crisis of 1912-14. He was appalled at the threat of the use of violence to deliver Ulster from Home Rule and the later decision to postpone the implementation of the

Third Home Rule Bill The Government of Ireland Act 1914 (4 & 5 Geo. 5 c. 90), also known as the Home Rule Act, and before enactment as the Third Home Rule Bill, was an Act passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom intended to provide home rule (self-governm ...

. He later wrote: "Then came August 1914 and England began a war for the freedom of small nations by postponing the freedom of the only small nation in Europe which it was within her power to liberate with the stroke of a pen." Of James Connolly, Lynd was to write: "among the sixteen men who were executed after the failure of the Irish Insurrection of 1916 there was no nobler or more heroic figure than James Connolly". He described Connolly as "a working-class leader and a Nationalist in almost equal Proportions. He was at once as patriotic as

Garibaldi Giuseppe Maria Garibaldi ( , ;In his native Ligurian language, he is known as ''Gioxeppe Gaibado''. In his particular Niçard dialect of Ligurian, he was known as ''Jousé'' or ''Josep''. 4 July 1807 – 2 June 1882) was an Italian general, pat ...

and as revolutionary as

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

". At the request of the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, Lynd wrote an introduction to a new edition of James Connolly’s Labour in Irish history, first published in 1910. He became a fluent

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

speaker, and

Gaelic League (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it emer ...

member. As a

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

activist, he used the name Robiard Ó Flionn/Roibeard Ua Flionn. In Belfast he was a member both of the republican Dungannon Clubs and of the Belfast Socialist Society.

Personal life and death

He married the writer Sylvia Dryhurst on 21 April 1909. They met at Gaelic League meetings in London. Their daughters Máire and Sigle became close friends of Isaiah Berlin. Máire married communist lawyer Jack Gaster and had three children. Sigle's son, born in 1941, is artis
Tim Wheeler
In March 1924, Robert and Sylvia moved to what was to be their long-term married home, the elegant Regency house of 5 Keats Grove in the leafy suburb of Hampstead, north-west London. The house had been lived in by various members of Sylvia's (Dryhurst) family.Wilson, N. (2017
"'So now tell me what you think!’': Sylvia Lynd's collaborative reading and reviewing the work of an interwar middlewoman"
''Literature & History''. ISSN 0306-1973. University of Reading.

and his wife

Nora Barnacle Nora Barnacle (21 March 1884 – 10 April 1951) was the muse and wife of Irish author James Joyce. Barnacle and Joyce had their first romantic assignation in 1904 on a date celebrated worldwide as the "Bloomsday" of his modernist novel '' ...

held their wedding lunch at the Lynds’ house after getting married at Hampstead Town Hall on 4 July 1931. Lynd died in Hampstead in 1949. He is buried in

Belfast City Cemetery Belfast City Cemetery ( ga, Reilig Chathair Bhéal Feirste) is a large cemetery in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. It lies within the townland of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and Springfield Road, near Milltown Cemetery. It is maintained by ...

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 19 ...

, Minister for External Affairs, attended the funeral as the representative of the government of the Republic of Ireland.

Works

*''The Mantle Of The Emperor'' (1906) with Ladbroke Black
''Irish and English''
(1908)
''Home Life in Ireland''
(1909)
''Rambles in Ireland''
(1912)
''The Book of This and That''
(1915)
''If the Germans Conquered England''
(1917)
''Old and New Masters''
(1919)
''Ireland a Nation''
(1919)
''The Art of Letters''
(1920)
''The Passion of Labour''
(1920)

articles
''The Pleasures of Ignorance''
(1921)
''Solomon in All His Glory''
(1922)
''The Sporting Life and Other Trifles''
(1922)
''Books and Authors''
(1922) *''The Blue Lion'' (1923) *''Selected Essays'' (1923) *''The Peal of Bells'' (1924) *''The Money Box'' (1925) *''The Orange Tree'' (1926) *''The Little Angel'' (1926) *''Dr. Johnson and Company'' (1927) *''The Goldfish'' (1927) *''The Silver Books of English Sonnets'' (1927), editor *''The Green Man'' (1928) *''It's a Fine World'' (1930) *''Rain, Rain, go to Spain'' (1931) *''Great Love Stories of All Nations'' (1932), editor *''"Y.Y." An Anthology of Essays'' (1933) *''The Cockleshell'' (1933) *''Both Sides of the Road'' (1934) *''I Tremble to Think'' (1936) *''In Defence of Pink'' (1937) *''Searchlights and Nightingales'' (1939) *''An Anthology of Modern Poetry'' (1939), editor *''Life's Little Oddities'' (1941), illustrated by Steven Spurrier *''Further Essays of Robert Lynd'' (1942) *''Things One Hears'' (1945), illustrated by *''Essays on Life and Literature'' (1951) *''Books and Writers'' (1952) *''Essays by Robert Lynd'' (1959) *''Galway of the Races – Selected essays'' (1990), edited by Sean McMahon *''Without Glasses — abridged''

References

External links

About the Blue Plaque
ulsterhistory.co.uk
Contemporary Review article
findarticles.com * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lynd, Robert Wilson 1879 births 1949 deaths Irish essayists Irish Presbyterians Irish socialists Irish people of Scottish descent Protestant Irish nationalists Writers from Belfast Burials at Belfast City Cemetery