17 Facts About Stephen Gwynn

Stephen Lucius Gwynn was an Irish journalist, biographer, author, poet and Protestant Nationalist politician.

Stephen Gwynn served as a British Army officer in France during World War I and was a prominent proponent of Irish involvement in the Allied war effort.

Stephen Gwynn founded the Irish Centre Party in 1919, but his moderate nationalism was eclipsed by the growing popularity of Sinn Fein.

Stephen Gwynn was born in Saint Columba's College in Rathfarnham, south County Dublin, where his father John Gwynn, a biblical scholar and Church of Ireland clergyman, was warden.

Stephen Gwynn spent his early childhood in rural County Donegal, which was to shape his later view of Ireland.

Stephen Gwynn went to Brasenose College, Oxford, where, as scholar, in 1884 he was awarded first-class honours in classical moderations and in 1886 literae humaniores.

Stephen Gwynn wrote numerous books on travel and on the topography of his own homeland, as well as on his other interests: wine, eighteenth-century painting and fishing.

Stephen Gwynn returned to Ireland in 1904 when he entered politics.

Stephen Gwynn was opposed to the demand for Irish as a compulsory subject for matriculation.

Stephen Gwynn supported the campaign which won the establishment of a Catholic university when he served on the Irish University Royal Commission in 1908.

Stephen Gwynn was made a chevalier of the Legion d'honneur in July 1915.

Stephen Gwynn opposed the threat of compulsory military service during the Conscription Crisis of 1918, though as a member of the Irish Recruiting Council he continued to support voluntary recruitment, encountering intense opposition led by Sinn Fein.

Stephen Gwynn formed the Irish Centre Party in 1919 and stood unsuccessfully as an Independent Nationalist for Dublin University in the December general elections.

The party merged with Plunkett's Irish Dominion League to press for a settlement by consent on the basis of dominion status, but Stephen Gwynn subsequently broke with Plunkett due to his willingness to accept partition as a temporary compromise.

Later in his career he wrote some substantial works, and together with his son Denis Stephen Gwynn did much to shape the retrospective image and self-justification of John Redmond.

Stephen Gwynn brings both freshness and penetration of observation to the Cotswold scene, where as much as anywhere on our island, the works of Nature and man are one.

Stephen Gwynn died on 11 June 1950 at his home in Terenure, Dublin and was buried at Tallaght cemetery, south County Dublin.