Dublin 1919-1925

Painting of MacGreevy by Sarah Purser

Photograph of painting of MacGreevy by portrait painter and stained glass artist Sarah Purser(1848-1943).The painting dates from the early 1920s when MacGreevy was about 30

Painting of MacGreevy by Sarah Purser

Painting of MacGreevy by Sarah Purser

Photograph of painting of MacGreevy by portrait painter and stained glass artist Sarah Purser(1848-1943).The painting dates from the early 1920s when MacGreevy was about 30

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MacGreevy returned to Dublin where he enrolled as a student of History and Political Science at Trinity College. He witnessed the turbulence of the War of Independence and the nightmare of the Civil War throughout this period in Dublin.

In Dublin he formed many friendships which were to endure throughout his life. It was of course, a hugely significant period for Irish Literature. W.B. Yeats was the dominant literary figure and James Joyce was about to forge his way to immortality.

After he graduated from Trinity College he began to work with the Carnegie Trust to establish the Irish Central Library for students. He worked alongside librarian, Christina Keogh and playwright Lennox Robinson. In his autobiography 'Curtain Up' Lennox recalls in 1914,

"Within a few years I had gathered around me a band of workers whose names fill me with pride. Above all I had as my assistant the best man who had the difficult task of persuading counties to strike a county rate. This was Thomas MacGreevy, who after a month or two of working together, became one of my closest friends. "Three poets, a novelist a poet-art-critic –most of them have left Ireland now or if they are still here their work is not with libraries. But the work we started twenty years ago continues and grows"