Brian Coffey - Early Life and Work

Early Life and Work

Coffey was born in Dublin in the suburb of DĂșn Laoghaire. He attended the Mount St Benedict boarding school in Gorey, County Wexford from 1917 to 1919 and then James Joyce's old school. Clongowes Wood College, in Clane, County Kildare from 1919 until 1922. In 1923, he went to France to study for the Bachelor's degree in Classical Studies at the Institution St Vincent, Senlis, Oise.

His father, Denis Coffey, was a professor of anatomy and served as first president of University College Dublin (UCD) from 1908 to 1940. Coffey entered UCD in 1924 and earned advanced degrees in mathematics, physics, and chemistry. He also represented the college in boxing tournaments.

While still at college, Coffey began writing poetry. He published his first poems in UCD's The National Student under the pseudonym Coeuvre. These poems, which have never been collected, showed the influence of French Symbolism and of T. S. Eliot. During this time, Coffey met Denis Devlin, and together they published a volume entitled Poems in 1930. Coffey and Devlin both also participated in college dramatics, taking roles in French plays.

Read more about this topic:  Brian Coffey

Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or work:

    For the writer, there is nothing quite like having someone say that he or she understands, that you have reached them and affected them with what you have written. It is the feeling early humans must have experienced when the firelight first overcame the darkness of the cave. It is the communal cooking pot, the Street, all over again. It is our need to know we are not alone.
    Virginia Hamilton (b. 1936)

    Citizen’s Band radio renders one accessible to a wide variety of people from all walks of life. It should not be forgotten that all walks of life include conceptual artists, dry cleaners, and living poets.
    Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)

    Now you grab me by the ankles.
    Now you work your way up the legs
    and come to pierce me at my hunger mark.
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)