1908-1959. Diplomat and poet. Born in Greenock, Scotland, returning with family in 1918; he was educated at Belvedere College; spent a year at All Hallows seminary; member of Vincent de Paul; studied UCD, 1927-29; Munich, 1930-31; and Sorbonne, 1931. His MA thesis was on Montaigne; degrees in modern languages period of research and lectureship at UCD; joined Diplomatic Service, 1935; posts in New York, 1939; Washington (first sec.), 1940-47; Irish High Commission, London 1947; Irish Plenipotentiary, Italy 1950; accredited to Turkey, 1951. Married Marie Caren Radon, 1946, published Memoirs of a Turcoman diplomat (Rome, 1959). The Complete Poems of Denis Devlin, edited with an introduction by Brian Coffey, was published in the University Review, Dublin, Volume III, number 5. His Collected Poems, edited by J.C.C. Mays, is published by The Dedalus Press, Dublin. In his last years he devoted himself to a poetic commentary on the via cruces. The denis devlin memorial award for poetry is administered by the arts council. He was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery, on his grave stone is the inscription “But nothing neither | life or death adorns us like adoration of | our Lord the Christ.” Other papal knights are also buried in that cemetery. (reference “A dictionary of Irish biography” edited BOYLAN, Gill & Macmillan 1998).
