User:Lucy Murless/sandbox

	Later Life & Death

After having a completed her BA in English in 1933 in University College Dublin, an MA in 1935, and her Ph.D. thesis on the Bible in 1940, Lorna Reynolds joined the UCD teaching staff. For 30 years she was a lecturer here and was exposed to the rigid segregation of male and female staff, with there being a Lady’s Professors’ Room, a Men Professors’ Room and a separate room for clerics.

Reynolds went on to teach at NUIG where in 1966 she was appointed Professor of modern English at UCD. She made an immediate impact during her time here at National University of Ireland, Galway. As well as lecturing Reynolds worked as an editor and edited numerous pieces of work. She co-edited several volumes of Yeats studies with Robert O’Driscoll of the University of Toronto. Much of this edited work can be found in UCD library; “Yeats and the 1890s” and “Theatre and the Visual Arts A Centenary Celebration of Jack Yeats and John Synge” both pieces of literature were edited by Robert O’Driscoll and Lorna Reynolds, She also organized conferences to take place such as the J.M Synge centenary conference in 1971.(Irish Times, 2003) As Irish delegate to various international writers’ conferences, Reynolds met many of the leading European writers of the 20th century, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Halldor Laxness and Giuseppe Ungaretti.

Reynolds also wrote poetry and short stories which were published in The Dublin Magazine in the 1940s, which led to her later contributions to The Bell, Poetry Ireland, Arena, and The Lace Curtain. In the 1950s she edited what is known today as the Irish University Review.

An interest in cooking began in childhood and she never let go of it. The Italian novelist Ignazio Silone said that she could have made a living as a chef in the city of Paris. There is a book of her recipes titled “Tasty Food for Hasty Folk” which was published in 1990, towards the end of her life.

Lorna Reynolds died on the 4th of July in 2003 at the age of 91. She is buried in Coghill Cemetery, Birr. (Irish Times, 2003)

	Legacy

The legacy of Lorna Reynolds lives on in all she achieved to accomplish in her life. Reynolds was a prominent member of the Women’s Social and progressive League in the 1940s. She was also very active in the Anti-Censorship Board, whose inaugural meeting was chaired by Maud Gonne. (Irish Times, 2003)

However, it was for the equal treatment of women in society and academics that Reynolds consistently campaigned and worked for that is dominant in her legacy. She heavily contributed to the advance of women’s rights through her heavy involvement in the UCD Women’s Graduated Association. Although her views were not always well received she still persevered with what she believed in, equality for women.

Reynolds also mobilised a campaign to try and restore the Georgian Theatre in Eyrecourt in County Galway which is referred to by many who are from the area as “Lady Gregory’s house”.(White, 1998)

The Women Writers’ Club was where Reynolds met Kate O'Brien. The lifelong friendship Lorna Reynolds had with the novelist Kate O’Brien is also part of her legacy. She wrote a bibliography, in 1987, about her long-time good friend titled “A literary study of Kate O’Brien’s Novels. O’Brien’s novels dealt with issues of female agency and sexuality in was that at the time they were written about were new and radical, which is something the writer and playwright was the theme of Reynolds’ life an legacy. (Irish Times, 2003)

References:

"A Life Who's Theme was Freedin if Women" Irish Times article (Irish Times, 2003) https://www.irishtimes.com/news/a-life-whose-theme-was-freedom-of-women-1.367604

"Georgian Galway" Irish Times Article (White, 1998) https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/georgian-galway-1.198997

Kate O'Brien Wikipedia Article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_O%27Brien_(novelist)

All information verified by second source: Lorna Reynolds. (8th August 2018). In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 25th, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Reynolds#Bibliography

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/National_University_of_Ireland%2C_Galway_%28St_Anthony%27s%29.jpg