Francis Stewart Leland Lyons

FLS Lyons was born in Derry in 1923, the son of a bank official.¹ He graduated from Trinity College in 1945, gaining scholarship in 1943 and a ‘first’ with a gold medal in history and political science in 1945.² After a few years as a Lecturer in Hull, he returned as a Fellow in 1951. In 1964 he left to become a founder member of the University of Kent and its first Professor of Modern History. He returned to College again in 1974, as the first Provost elected by a broad representation of the College and for a limited tenure of ten years. (Provost McConnell’s stated intention to retire in 1974 afforded the College an unprecedented opportunity to discuss the terms of the next appointment well in advance of the vacancy. On tenure, a ten year term was agreed without the possibility of re-election. On the electorate, it was agreed that the conclave of Fellows and full time Professors that had produced nominations for the previous three appointments should be enlarged by the admission of all full time members of the academic staff with a certain length of service and the student members of the Board and Council.)³By the time of his appointment Lyons was generally regarded as the leading historian of modern Ireland, and he was commissioned to write the authorised biography of W.B. Yeats.⁴  He found, however, that the heavy duties of the Provostship made it impossible for him to make progress with the work, and he resigned office in 1981 after seven years in tenure. Still in his mid fifties he opted for a personal chair in history rather than retiring and after two years of research he began writing his biography of Yeats.⁵ However he never completed the work due to his sudden and premature death three months later.

Painting Details

By Derek Hill
Oil on canvas

1. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 89.
2. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), p. 215.
3. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), p. 214.
4. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 89.
5. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), p. 215.