Image Gallery

Overview

The MacGreevy Archive is rich in images relating to MacGreevy's life and work, beginning with black and white photographs of Tarbert from the 1890s (the village in North Kerry where MacGreevy spent the first 16 years of his life), to colour photographs of MacGreevy taken in the early 1960s when he was Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. These images span the first three quarters of the twentieth century, and present a narrative that complements the Archive's texts. It is a narrative of change: from life in a small North Kerry village to friendships and intellectual exchanges with some of the most brilliant minds of the twentieth century in Dublin, London, and Paris. The photographs capture MacGreevy as a private individual with friends and relations, as well as the public figure he became in later years as Director of the National Gallery. The images which appear in the image gallery contain but a small sampling of the many hundreds of photographs MacGreevy saved over this lifetime.

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Early Childhood

MacGreevy spent his childhood in Tarbert, Co. Kerry, 120 miles from Dublin as the crow flies. It was a place still haunted by tales told by survivors of the Irish Famine. In his Memoirs, MacGreevy described Tarbert as 'a not unlovely village in the vast and varied county on the south side of the wide and very beautiful estuary of the Shannon...' Thomas MacGreevy was born on the 26th of October 1893, the seventh of eight children and the only surviving son into, a family of farmers and schoolteachers. From this beginning he went on to become a published poet, literary and art critic, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, and confidante to some of the most important modernist writers and artists from both sides of the Atlantic.

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Dublin 1910-12

Probably early in 1909 MacGreevy enrolled in a correspondence course to prepare for the Boy Clerk's examination in the British Civil Service. He travelled up to Dublin a few days before the examination on the 29th September. There were fifteen openings for the 146 boys who sat the exam. MacGreevy scored high enough to be awarded a position with the Irish Land Commission. In February 1910 he moved to Dublin, a place of music, art and culture. There were once-in-a-lifetime performances, and history in the making. He was able to watch from his office window as King George and Queen Mary drove into Dublin on their first state visit. Months later he was in the crowd as John Redmond unveiled the Parnell monument on Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street).

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London 1912-16

In 1912, MacGreevy successfully sat the Civil Service examination for the Assistant Clerk position. He was offered a place with the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, and in April moved to London.

Before the outbreak of the Great War he began work at the Admiralty. After the declaration of War in August 1914, he was assigned to the Department of the Intelligence, probably as a Second Division Clerk. In March 1916 MacGreevy enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery and began active service in March 1917.

At present, there are no photographs available for this period.

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War Years 1917-1919

In March 1917, MacGreevy enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery of the British Army. His training lasted for nearly 10 months. In November of that year he received a commission as Second Lieutenant in the RFA and one month later, having finished home service, was posted to the Western Front, landing in Le Harve on 20 December 1917.

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London 1925-27

In May, MacGreevy moved to London and took up residence at 15 Cheyne Gardens. With an introduction from W.B. Yeats, he called on T.S. Eliot who took him on as a reviewer at The Criterion. T.S. Eliot also published MacGreevy's first poem, Dysert, under the pseudonym L.St. Senan, the patron saint of Tarbert. In November he took up the post of Assistant Editor for The Connoisseur, a journal of the fine arts. He remained at The Connoisseur until February 1927, when he moved to Paris.

It is during this period that MacGreevy began writing poetry, and some of his best poems, such as "Aodh Ruadh O Domhniall," "Recessional," "Gloria de Carlos V," and "Nocturne of the Self-Evident Presence" were written during this time.

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Paris 1927-33

In January 1927 William McCausland Stewart recommended MacGreevy for the post of lecteur in English Literature at the Ecole Normale Supérieure. He was appointed to the position and left for Paris in February 27 to take up the post which he retained until June 1929. Only a few days after his arrival, he sent a note to James Joyce, announcing, as MacGreevy later writes, 'his presence in Paris.' From that time, until MacGreevy left Paris permanently to take up residence in London in November 1933, he was an intimate of the Joyce family (acting as best man to Giorgio Joyce at his wedding to Helen Fleischman on 10 December 1930) in addition to assisting Joyce with Work in Progress published as Finnegans Wake. In November 1928 his replacement at the Ecole, Samuel Beckett, arrived and the two men hit it off immediately, forming a friendship that only ended with MacGreevy's death.

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On tour with Richard Aldington 1928-31

In early June 1928 MacGreevy met Richard Aldington for the first time at James Joyce's apartment in Paris. They struck up a friendship immediately. From 1928 until April 1931, MacGreevy accompanied Richard Aldington and Bridget Patmore (his companion from 1928 through 1936) on several excursions throughout Italy, France and Greece. Other companions were the Editor at Chatto & Windus, Charles Prentice, the Editor at Heinemann, A.S. Frere who in 1934 published MacGreevy's Poems (and to whom MacGreevy dedicated "De Civitate Hominum"), and Norman Douglas.

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Dublin 1941-67

In 1941 MacGreevy returned to Ireland as his lecturing and reviewing work in London had become scarce due to the Blitz. He soon became Art Critic for The Irish Times, writing several influential reviews during the first Irish Exhibition of Living Art. In 1941 he began writing for The Father Matthew Record, and the following year joined the staff of The Capuchin Annual. During this time, MacGreevy's friendship with Jack Yeats, begun as early as 1920, deepened. In 1950 Thomas MacGreevy became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland, a post he retained until 1963, when he retired due to failing health.

© 2007 Susan Schreibman — Last Updated: Monday, August 13, 2007