Life
1892-1973 [nom-de-plume, Helen Staunton]; b. 21st Dec.; b. Herbert St.,
dg. barrister, the family home being in Castlereagh, Co. Roscommon, where
he practised law as a solicitor; raised in Dublin and later at Howth;
ed. Loreta Convent, St. Stephen’s Green; m. Albert le Brocquy, with
children Louis (b.1916), Noel and Melanie (b.1919); involved in organising
Womens’ International League of Peace and Freedom, 1926; with Albert,
active in League of Nations Association and instrumental in estab. of
Irish Civil Rights, PEN, and Amnesty in Ireland; co-fnd. of Living Art
Exhibition, with Louis le Brocquy and others; member of Drama League from
mid-1920s, first appearing as Helen Staunton in Drama Song, which
Yeats attended - by repute - each night for a week; wrote plays for RÉ
as Helen Staunton; friend of the National Library of Ireland, Marsh’s
Library, &c.; persuaded Charles Haughey to a list of tax exemptions
in regard to literary incomes of writers in Ireland; issued Cadenus:
A Reassessment (1962), arguing that Swift had a boy-child by Vanessa
who died in infancy and was buried pseudonymously in St. Patrick’s
yard under the name of Swift’s verger; also Stella’s Birth-Day
Poems (1967) and several plays, held in the National Library of Ireland
with her papers; a commemorative pamphlet incorporating a ‘A Personal
Appreciation’ by Mary Manning appeared in (1976), arising from the
work of a commemorative committee incl. Norah McGuinness, Liam Miller,
Sheelah Richards, Michael Scott, Lilo Stephens, Andrew Carpenter and Manning;
the monument to Lord Chesterfield (Viceroy) facing the National Gallery
of Ireland was refurbished and a presentation copy of William Molyneux’s
Case for Ireland’s being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England
Stated presented to the National Library of Ireland; lived at 51,
Kenilworth Sq., Rathmines, Dublin.
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Works
Cadenus: A Resassessment in the Light of New Evidence of the Relationships
between Swift, Stella, and Vanessa (Dublin: Dolmen 1962).
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Criticism
Mary Manning, ‘A Personal Appreciation’ of Sybil le Brocquy
(1976).
Anne Madden le Brocquy, Louis le Brocquy: A Painter Seeing His Way (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1994), 335pp.
Terence de Vere White, ‘Jonathan What?’, in ‘Swift’, Irish Times Special Supplement [6d.], (30th Nov. 1967).
P. J. Kavanagh, Voices in Ireland (1994), p.276, and n.41 (p.335).
Bruce Arnold, Swift: An Illustrated Life (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1999)..
Kevin Kiely, review of Cadenus and Swift’s Most Valuable Friend, in Books Ireland (May 2004), p.114.
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Notes
Papers of Sybil le Brocquy incl. correspondence with Mrs. W. B.
Yeats, Austin Clark, Joseph O’Neill, et al., and num. docs. relating
to her studies of Jonathan Swift, League of Nations and Amnesty International
(Irel.) held as MS 24218 in Natonal Library of Ireland [200 items].
On the Threshold: Threshold 5, 1 (Summer 1961), ed. Mary O’Malley, contains letter to ed. by Sybil le Brocquy on Swift and Vanessa arguing that it really is time the critics bothered to read Swift’s letters to the tragic young woman (p.69).
Commemoration: A commemorative
committee convened to honour Sybil le Brocquy consisted of Patrick Henchy,
Bryan Guinness, Norah McGuinness, Mary Manning, Liam Miller, Shelah Richards,
Michael Scott, Lilo Stephens and Andrew Carpenter.
The Case for Ireland’s being Bound by Acts of Parliament in England Stated / by William Molyneux, of Dublin, Esq.; Dublin, Printed by Joseph Ray, and are to be sold at his Shop in Skinner Row, MDC XC VIII; the copy presented to the National Library of Ireland in honour of Sybil le Brocquy originally belonged to William King and later passed to William Shaw Mason who had it bound, prob. by George Mullen, and presented it to Earl of Charlemont when Lord Lieutenant. Dark Green Morocco. King, the dedicatee, was in dispute with the London companies during his incumbency in Derry, bringing a case to the House of Lords are regards their land and fishing rights, which was then overturned in London, finding that the Irish judgement was coram no iudice, i.e., that the Irish house had no appellate jurisdiction and, in effect, that the Irish parliament could always be overruled and had no effective power. The main argument is the government can only be carried on with the consent of the governed: ‘I have no other notion of slavery but being bound by a law to which I do not consent’; ‘To tax without consent is little better than downright robbing me. I am sure the great patriots of liberty and property, the free people of Englan, cannot think of such a thing but with abhorrence.’ The book was found to be ‘of dangerous consequence to the crown and people of England by denying the authority of the king and parliament of England to bind the kingdom of Ireland and people of Ireland …’. Grattan 1782, called out: ‘Spirit of Swift! Spirit of Molyneux! Your genius has prevailed. Ireland is now a nation. In that new characters I hail her, and bowing to her august presence, I say, Esto perpetua!’ (See Mary Manning, ‘A Personal Appreciation’ of Sybil le Brocquy, 1976; bibliographical notice by Andrew Carpenter.)
Living Quarters: Sybil le Brocquy lived all her married life at 51, Kenilworth Sq., Rathmines, Dublin, at first on a rented flat for three years and later in the whole house when purchased for £1,400 by her father-in-law; she died at the Meath Hospital, Dublin.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)