Life
1894-1972, b. 7 June, Cork; dg. Henry Lynch, a Labour activist in London; ed. convents in Ireland, England, and Belgium;
influenced by oral tales of seanachie; published her first story at 11;
settled in London and turned to journalism to support family on failure
of family's expectations; became active in suffragette movement; asked
by Sylvia Pankhurst to report the 1916 Rising in Workers Dreadnought,
giving an account of events in a pamphlet, Rebel Ireland; wrote
journalist’s account of 1916 Rising for English suffragette paper;
m. R. M. Fox, 31 Oct. 1922, having met him in c.1914 through her father’s Internat. Workers of the World milieu; published 48 children’s novels and some
200 stories; contrib. “The Turfcutter’s Children” as a
daily column in Irish Press; “The Cobblers Apprentice”
won Tailteann Silver Medal, 1932; followed by The Turf-Cutter’s
Donkey (1934), telling of Seamus and Eileen and the donkey that they
rescue from cruel 'tinkers' [travellers], who leads the children into magic realms (two
printed in 1935 and a third in 1959); trans. into Irish as Eibhlín agus Séamus, and other languages; issued the “Brogeen Stories”, featuring
an adventurous leprachaun; hailed by Irish Bookman as
classics, ‘so natural and true to the life of Ireland and to that
elfin land which is so near us all’ (IF);
issued semi-autobiographical A Story-Teller's Childhood (1947) lived in
North Dublin, and later with the Eugene and Mai Lambert, in Monkstown, Co. Dublin, after the death
of her husband in Dec. 1969; d. 1 Sept.; subject of
memorial exhibition at Munich Library, 1966; works illustrated by Jack
B. Yeats, Elizabeth Rivers, and others; Poolbeg reprinted nine titles
to 1998. IF DIB DIW DIH DIL ATT OCIL
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Works
The Green Dragon (London: Harrap [1925]); The Turf Cutter’s
Donkey (London: Dent 1934; 1957), 244pp., ill. by Jack Yeats; The
Turf Cutter’s Goes Visiting (London: J. M. Dent 1935), 229pp;
King of the Tinkers (London: J. M. Dent; NY: Dutton 1938), ill. Kat[h]erine
Lloyd; Grey Goose of Kelnevin (London: J. M. Dent 1939; NY: Dutton
[1939]), 284pp., ill. John [sic] Keating, [being a story first printed
in The Irish Press, ill. George Altendorf]; Do., [rep.]
(Children’s Press (1984); Fiddler’s Quest (London: J.
M. Dent 1941) 309pp.; Long Ears (London: J. M. Dent 1943); Strangers
at the Fair & Other Stories (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1945),
19 stories, 159pp., ill. E. Coghlan; Knights of God (London: Hollis
& Carter [1946]; Chicester: H Regnery [1955]; Lon & Sidney Bodley
Head 1967; NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston [1969]; The Turf-Cutter’s
Donkey Kicks Up His Heels (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1946); Lisheen
at the Valley Farm & Other Stories [Dublin: Gayfield 1949];
The Cobbler’s Apprentice (Lonn: Hollis & Carter 1947),
124pp.; Cobbler’s Luck (London: Burke [1957], 160pp., ill.
Christopher Brooker; The Seventh Pig, and Other Irish Fairy Tales
(London: Dent [1950]), 230pp.; The Mad O’Haras (London: J.
M. Dent [1948], 338pp.; The Dark Sailor of Youghal (London:
Dent 1951), 224pp., ill. J. Sullivan; The Boy at the Swinging Lantern
(London: J. M. Dent [1952]), 222pp.; Tales of Irish Enchantment
(Dublin: Clonmore & Reynolds [1952], 15 stories, ill. Fergus O’Ryan;
Grania of Castle O’Hara (Boston: LC Page [1952]); Tinker Boy
(London: J. M. Dent [1955]), 182pp.; The Bookshop on the Quay (London:
J. M. Dent [1956]), 186pp.
BROGEEN STORIES, Brogeen of the Stepping Stones (London: Kerr-Cross 1947); Brogeen Follows the Magic Tune (London: Burke [1952]); Brogeen and the Green Shores (London: Burke [1953]); Brogeen and the Bronze Lizard (London: Burke [1954]/NY: Macmillan [1970); Brogeen and the Princess of Sheen (London: Burke [1955]); Brogeen and the Lost Castle ([Lon;]Burke [1956]; Brogeen and the Black Enchanter (London: Burke [1958]; Brogeen and the Little Wind (NY: Roy Publishers [1963]); Brogeen and the Red Fez (London: Burke 1963); Orla of Burren (London: Dent [1954]), 182pp.; Delia Daly of Galloping Green (London: Dent [1953], 185pp. [ill. Joan Kiddell-Monroe]; Fiona Leaps the Bonfire (London: Dent [1957]); The Old Black Sea Chest (London: J. M. Dent [1958]), ill. Peggy Fortnum; Shane Comes to Dublin (NY: Criterion Bks [1958]); The Stone House at Kilgobbin ([London: ]Burke [1959]); Jimmy [IF Jinny] the Changeling (London: J. M. Dent [1959]; The Black Goat of Slievemore & Other Irish Fairy Tales (London: J. M. Dent [1959]) [rep. under new of older stories with one addition IF]; The Runaways (Oxford: Blackwell 1959); The Lost Fisherman of Carrigmore (London: Burke 1960); Sally from Cork (London: J. M. Dent [1960]); The Longest Way Round (London: Burke 1961); Ryan’s Fort (London: J. M. Dent 1961); The Golden Caddy (London: Dent [1962]; The House by Lough Neagh (London: Dent 1963); Guest at the Beach Tree (London: Burke 1964); Holiday at Rosquin (London: Dent 1964), ill.; The Twisted Key & Other Stories (London: Harrap 1964); Mona of the Isle (London: D[e]nt [1964]); The Kerry Caravan (London: Dent 1967).
Reprints, Robert Dunbar, ed. and intro., Secret Lands: The Patricia Lynch Collection (Dublin: O’Brien Press 1998); A Storyteller’s Childhood [1947] (London: Children’s Press 1982); The Turf-Cutter’s Donkey (Dublin: Poolbeg 1998), 240pp.; Robert Dunabr, ed., Secret Lands: Patricia Lynch Collection (Dublin: O’Brien Press 1998), 192pp.
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Notes
Libraries: BELFAST CENTRAL LIBRARY holds 10 titles including Brogeen and the
Green Shoes (1953). SLIGO PUBLIC LIBRARY-MUSEUM holds copy of The Turf-Cutter’s Donkey, ill. by Jack Yeats, and The Grey Goose of Kelnevin (London: J. M. Dent 1939), 285pp., ill. John [sic] Keating, [being a story first printed in The Irish Press, ill. George Altendorf], and ending: ‘"Am I that handsome?" she hissed. "Ah! If the gander could only see me now!"’ (p.285).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)