Irish poet and educator, Sean Lucy, circa 1975

Sean Lucy (March 12, 1931 – July 25, 2001) was an Irish poet and educator.

Biography

Lucy was born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1931. His father was an Irish officer in the

British army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

, who resigned his commission in 1935 to resettle the family in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Lucy was enrolled at

Glenstal Abbey School Glenstal Abbey School is an all boys independent day and boarding Roman Catholic secondary school, located on the grounds of Glenstal Abbey in Murroe, County Limerick. It is run by monks of the Benedictine order. The school offers seven-day ful ...

, and later attended

University College Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one ...

, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1954, he moved to England where he served two years as an education officer in the British army. He subsequently taught for four years at Prior Park College in Bath as a Senior English Master. During this time, he married Patricia Kennedy, his first wife, with whom he had five children. Lucy returned to Ireland in 1960 and joined the English faculty at

(UCC) in 1962, where he eventually became professor and department chair. The composer Sean O Riada who lectured in music at the university from 1963 to 1971, was a friend. During this time, he published his first major critical work, ''TS Eliot and The Idea of Tradition'' (1960). He continued to write and edit critical works in English and Irish including Love Poems of the Irish (1967), as well as his own creative works in poetry. A collection, ''Unfinished Sequence and Other Poems'' was published in 1979. Also in 1979, he co-founded the University College Cork, Summer School for American students. During the 1980–81 academic year, he served as visiting professor in the English department at

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, Catholic univers ...

. Following his early retirement from UCC in 1986, Lucy moved to Chicago and married his second wife, fellow poet, Susan Leah Lederman. During these years, he taught Irish Literature at Loyola University, the

Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rel ...

and the Irish American Heritage Center. He died of a heart attack in 2001 following a traffic accident. Lucy was involved in bringing the poet John Montague to the English Department at UCC, and the poets and writers Greg Delanty, William Wall,

Theo Dorgan Theo Dorgan (born 1953) is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer, translator, librettist and documentary screenwriter. He lives in Dublin. Life Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953 being second child born into a family of 8 boys and 8 girls to pare ...

, Sean Dunne,

Maurice Riordan Maurice Riordan (born 1953) is an Irish poet, translator, and editor. Born in Lisgoold, County Cork, his poetry collections include: ''A Word from the Loki'' (1995), a largely London-based collection which was a Poetry Book Society Choice and ...

, Gerry Murphy and Thomas McCarthy were students of Montague and Lucy at UCC in the 1970s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lucy, Sean 1931 births 2001 deaths Irish poets