Pièce 19 - Letter from Kate O'Brien to Lorna Reynolds

Lorna Teresa Reynolds was born on 17 January 1911 in Jamaica as the eldest of five children of Michael Reynolds and Teresa Anne née Hickey. When her father died in 1921, she and her family returned to Ireland. Having spent three years in Birr, county Offaly, the family moved to Dublin, where Lorna completed her secondary education at the Dominican College on Eccles Street. She continued her education at University College Dublin, where she studied English, obtaining a BA in 1933, an MA in 1935 and a doctorate in 1940. Her doctoral dissertation dealt with the Bible. During her college years, she made lasting friendships with Mary Lavin, Cyril Cusack and Brian O’Nolan, better known as Flann O’Brien.

Shortly after graduating, Reynolds joined the teaching staff at UCD, where her striking presence, intense love of English literature and ability to listen made her highly popular among students. Her relationships with the college authorities was less successful, particularly so in the case of the then president, Michael Tierney, to whom she refers in her letters as ‘the snake in the grass’. In 1966, Reynolds was appointed Professor of Modern English at University College Galway. Here, she revitalised the department and organised a number of high-profile conferences, most notably the J. M. Synge centenary conference in 1971. She served as editor of the University Review (now Irish University of Review) in the 1950s. She also co-edited two books with Robert O’Driscoll, Yeats and the Theatre (1975) and The Untold Story: The Irish in Canada (1988).

In addition to being a distinguished academic, Reynolds was an accomplished poet and translator of Italian poetry, sometimes in collaboration with Gioia Gaidoni (1915-1993). Her poems and short stories were published in the Dublin Magazine in the 1940s and later in The Bell, Poetry Ireland, Arena, The Lace Curtain and Botteghe Oscure. She was a familiar figure at various international writers’ conferences and socialised with many of the leading European writers of the day.

One of defining aspects of Reynolds’ life was her strong belief in women’s rights and the importance of their contribution to Irish society. She was a leading member of the Women’s Social and Progressive League in the 1940s and actively involved in the UCD Women Graduates’ Association. She was also a popular after-dinner speaker at various women’s groups.

In 1978, Reynolds returned to Dublin to live in the old family home on Merrion Square. She derived great pleasure from entertaining friends and was an excellent cook, a skill which culminated in the publication of a cook book, Tasty Food for Hasty Folk, in 1990.

Lorna Reynolds died on 4 July 2003 aged 91.