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Early Life and Family
Thomas William Lyster, was born December 17th, 1855, to parents Thomas Lyster of Rathdowney & Jane Lyster (nee’ Smith) of Roscrea. Originally born in Co. Kilkenny, Lyster and his family moved to Dublin in his youth where he remained throughout his entire life.

Education
Initially, Lyster attended the Wesleyan Connexional School, which was founded by a group of Methodists Ministers in 1845 at St Stephens Green. After his initial schooling at Wesleyan, Lyster then attended Trinity College for further education. The admissions register of Trinity indicates Lyster enrolled into University in October of 1872 at the age of 16. His enrolment was listed as “pensioner” which at the time was common and indicated he paid a set annual fee for his education and did not have any form of scholarship or fee assistance. The register also indicates at the time of entry to Trinity, that his father had no profession and that his religious background was the Church of Ireland. In the winter of 1877 Lyster graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Honours and in the winter of 1879, he was awarded a Master of Arts.

Early Published Work
While Lyster became primarily known for his role within the National Library of Ireland, he was also a well-respected author. His early work included a translation of Düntzer's “Life Of Goethe” which he translated and expanded in 1883. By 1893 he had edited and published his first original work, an anthology of Poetry titled “English Poems for young students” which ended up becoming an intermediate certificate text. In addition to his original work, Lyster was well documented to be very supportive of other writers. Most notably he encouraged W. B. Yeat's passion for writing and helped him with edits to his original manuscript of “The Island of Statues” that was published by Yeats in 1885.