John Lyle Donaghy was an Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

.

John Lyle Donaghy was born on 28 July 1902 in Larne

Larne

Larne is a substantial seaport and industrial market town on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland with a population of 18,228 people in the 2001 Census. As of 2011, there are about 31,000 residents in the greater Larne area. It has been used as a seaport for over 1,000 years, and is...

, the eldest son of a Presbyterian minister. He was educated at Larne Grammar School

Larne Grammar School

Larne Grammar School is a co-education voluntary grammar school located in Larne, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Founded in 1886 by Sir Edward Coey and John Crawford, it has around 760 pupils and 50 teaching staff.-Past Headmasters:R.M Jones...

 and Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, after which he became a schoolteacher. In Dublin, Donaghy was active in theatrical activities, founding the Phoenix Theatre in Dun Laoghaire

Dún Laoghaire

Dún Laoghaire or Dún Laoire , sometimes anglicised as "Dunleary" , is a suburban seaside town in County Dublin, Ireland, about twelve kilometres south of Dublin city centre. It is the county town of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County and a major port of entry from Great Britain...

 in 1932. He published in T.S. Eliot’s The Criterion and Poetry (Chicago) and appeared in the Devin-Adair anthology New Irish Poets (1949). He died of tuberculosis on 4 May 1949.

Donaghy's poems Winter, Portrait, Duck and Deathward were featured in The Faber Book of Irish Verse, first published in 1974.

His work is praised in Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...

's 1934 essay 'Recent Irish Poetry'.

Bibilography

• At dawn above Aherlow, Cuala Press, Dublin, 1926.
• Primordia caeca, Eason, Dublin, 1927.
• Ad perennis vitae fontem, Minorca Press, Dublin, 1928.
• The Flute Over the Valley, The Inver Press, Omagh 1931.
• The Blackbird:Songs of Innisfail, Inver Press, Larne, 1933.
• Into the Light and other poems, Cuala Press, Dublin, 1934.
• Selected Poems, Orwell Press, Dublin, 1939.
• Wilderness Sings, Wood, Dublin, 1942.
• Wild Sun and Moon: Poems 1941-1945, Wood, Dublin, 1949.

External links

• http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/d/Donaghy,JohnL/life.htm
• http://openlibrary.org/books/OL18874875M/Ad_perennis_vitae_fontem