Jennifer Lyons (née McAlister), b. 1933

Track 1: Background in Ireland and England, and her secretarial work in Trinity College in the early 1950s. Her meeting there with her future husband, Professor F.S.L. Lyons. Track 2: Their ten years in Canterbury, where her husband was the first Professor of History and later Master of Eliot College at the new University of Kent. A discussion of Professor Lyons’ books on Irish history. Track 3: Her husband’s election as Provost of Trinity during challenging times in the 1970s. Her role as Provost’s wife. Track 4: Seeking funding for the college and visits to the USATrack 5: The many challenges faced by her husband during his term as Provost. The staff who worked in the Provost’s House. Track 6: The restrictions on female students in the 1950s and 1960s, and memories of the Trinity Ball. Track 7: Bringing the Book of Kells to the United States as a fundraising strategy for the college. Some personalities in the college, including Professor Mc Dowell. The labelling of Trinity as an Anglo-Irish College. Track 8: Keeping a diary to track events during the Provost’s tenure. Her husband’s fascination with the life of W.B. Yeats, and the ten years of research he conducted towards the writing of W.B.Yeats’ official biography, at the request of the Yeats family. Track 9: Professor Lyons’s early retirement from his post as Provost to complete his work on Yeats. His involvement in peace negotiations in Northern Ireland. Track 10: Professor Lyons’s book Culture and Anarchy. Track 11: The one hundred pages Professor Lyons had completed of his book on Yeats, before his unexpected death. His research is lodged in the Trinity Archives and was used by Professor R.F. Foster when he took over the biography, which was published in two volumes in 1997 and 2003.