Robert Yelverton Tyrrell (Greek Scholar)

Robert Yelverton Tyrrell, D Litt, DCL, FBA, was Regius Professor of Greek at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1904, he was a professor of ancient history at the same University. Robert was born in January in 1844 at Ballongarry in County Tipperary. His father was Henry Tyrrell rector of Kinnitty in Kings County and his mother was Elizabeth nee Shea . He entered Trinity College in 1860 at the age of just 16. He won his fellowship in 1868 and three years later became professor of Latin, succeeding W H Ferrar and vacated the Latin chair in 1880. He was married to Ada, daughter of George Ferdinand Shaw, who was elected a Fellow of Trinity in 1848. One of Tyrrell’s students was Oscar Wilde, who wrote fondly of Tyrrell. He became Regius Professor of Greek in the same year. Tyrrell gave his signature to Frank Harris’s petition to the Home Secretary for Oscar Wilde’s release in 1895. In 1898 he took over Mahaffy’s chair of ancient history at Trinity College. This made him the only person at Trinity to have all three classical chairs. In 1904 he became senior fellow at Trinity and by 1913 his health had begun to deteriorate. In 1913 Tyrrell staying at East House, Greystones, where he stayed for the summer season. He died in Greystones in 1914 at Coolderry on Church Road in Greystones, he was 70 years of age. His son Robert L Tyrrell was present and gave the same address.

Tyrrell’s first notable publication was a volume of Classical compositions named Hesperidum susurri published by Cambridge in 1867. Tyrrell went on to start the journal named Kottabos, which included writings by Oscar Wilde, Edward Dowden and Arthur Perceval Graves amongst other contributors. In 1879 he produced the first volume of The correspondence of Cicero, the first of seven volumes. This was one of the largest editions of a classical author ever to appear in Ireland. In 1909 he published Essays in Greek Literature. Before his death he received honorary doctorates from Belfast, Cambridge and Oxford amongst other universities.