Early Life and Work
Coffey was born in Dublin in the suburb of Dún 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.
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