View source for F. S. L. Lyons

{{Short description|Irish historian and provost of Trinity College Dublin}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Use Irish English|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder 
| name          = F. S. L. Lyons
| image         =
| order         = 40th 
| office        = Provost of Trinity College Dublin 
| term_start    = 1 August 1974
| term_end      = 1 August 1981
| predecessor   = [[Albert Joseph McConnell]]
| successor     = [[William Arthur Watts]]
| birth_name    = Francis Stewart Leland Lyons
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1923|11|11|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Derry]], Northern Ireland
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1983|9|21|1923|11|11|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| resting_place = [[Trinity College Dublin#Chapel|Trinity College Chapel]]
| spouse        = {{marriage|Jennifer Ann Stuart McAlister|1954}}
| children      = 2
| education     = [[Dover College]], [[Kent]]<br />[[The High School, Dublin]]
| alma_mater    = [[Trinity College Dublin]]
| signature     =
|}}
'''Francis Stewart Leland Lyons''' {{postnominals|country=GBR|FBA}} (11 November 1923 – 21 September 1983) was an Irish historian and academic who served as the 40th [[Provost of Trinity College Dublin]] from 1974 to 1981.<ref name="times">{{cite news |title=Professor F. S. L. Lyons – Perceptive Irish Historian |work=[[The Times]] |page=10 |date=24 September 1983 }}</ref>
[[File:FSLL grave.jpg|thumb|Plaque marking Lyons' burial site at [[Trinity College Dublin]]]]

==Biography==
Leland Lyons was born in [[Derry]], [[Northern Ireland]], in 1923, the son of Northern Bank official Stewart Lyons and Florence May, née Leland.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Lyons, Francis Stewart Leland |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/lyons-francis-stewart-leland-a4972 |access-date=22 September 2025 |website=www.dib.ie}}</ref> He was known as '''Le''' among his friends and family. The Lyons family were [[Irish Protestant]], of [[Presbyterian]] and [[Church of Ireland]] background, descended from a [[cadet branch]] of the [[landed gentry]] [[Lyons family#Irish Branch|Lyons family]], formerly of [[Belfast Oldpark (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)|Old Park, Belfast]],<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.burkespeerage.com/record_to_view.php?book=Burke%27s%20Family%20Index&ref=FamilyIndex&page=129&totalPages=203&bref=2528%201500%202728%201560 |title=''Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland'' 1958 |access-date=2023-02-25 |archive-date=2023-02-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230225105336/https://www.burkespeerage.com/record_to_view.php?book=Burke%27s%20Family%20Index&ref=FamilyIndex&page=129&totalPages=203&bref=2528%201500%202728%201560 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After his birth, his family soon moved to [[Boyle, County Roscommon]], Ireland. He was educated at [[Dover College]] in [[Kent]] and later attended [[The High School, Dublin]].<ref name="times"/> At Trinity College Dublin, he was [[List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|elected a Scholar]] in Modern History and Political Science in 1943.<ref name="UB">{{cite web|author=Ulster History Circle|title=Lyons, Francis Stewart Leland 1923-1983|work=Dictionary of Ulster Biography|url=http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsL.htm|access-date=9 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209212620/http://www.ulsterbiography.co.uk/biogsL.htm|archive-date=9 December 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>

He was a lecturer in history at the [[University of Hull]] and then at Trinity College Dublin. He became the founding Professor of Modern History at the [[University of Kent]] in 1964,<ref name="UB"/><ref name="DNB">Townshend, Charles. "Lyons, (Francis Stewart) Leland (1923–1983)", revised, ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2004</ref> serving also as Master of [[Eliot College]] from 1969 to 1972.<ref name="Martin259">Martin, Graham. ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'', [[University of Kent|University of Kent at Canterbury]], 1990, pg.  259; {{ISBN|0-904938-03-4}}</ref>

Lyons became [[List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin|Provost of Trinity College Dublin]] in 1974, but, relinquished the post in 1981 to concentrate on writing. He won the Heinemann Prize in 1978 for his work in ''Charles Stewart Parnell''. He wrote ''Culture and Anarchy in Ireland, 1890–1939'' which won the [[Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize]] and the [[Wolfson History Prize|Wolfson Literary Prize for History]] in 1979. Lyons was also awarded honorary doctorates by five universities and had fellowships at the [[Royal Society of Literature]] and the [[British Academy]]. He was Visiting Professor at [[Princeton University]].<ref name="UB"/>

His principal works include ''Ireland Since the Famine'', the standard university textbook for Irish history from the mid-19th to late-20th century, which ''[[The Times]]'' called "the definitive work of modern Irish history" and a [[biography]] of [[Charles Stewart Parnell]].<ref name="times"/>

Lyons was critical of [[Cecil Woodham-Smith]]'s much-acclaimed history of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Great Irish Famine]] and has generally been considered among the "revisionist" historians who reconsidered the role of the British state in events like the Famine.<ref>James S. Donnelly Jr, [http://www.historyireland.com/the-famine/the-great-famine-and-its-interpreters-old-and-new/ The Great Famine and its interpreters, old and new] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402111553/http://www.historyireland.com/the-famine/the-great-famine-and-its-interpreters-old-and-new/ |date=2 April 2015 }}, historyireland.com; accessed 12 February 2016.</ref>

Lyons married his wife Jennifer Ann Stuart McAlister<ref name=":0" /> in 1954, and had two sons,<ref>{{Who's Who | title = LYONS, Prof. Francis Stewart Leland | id = U166574 | type = was | volume = 2024 | edition = online}}</ref> one of whom, [[Nicholas Lyons|Nicholas]], is a former [[Lord Mayor of London]]. Following a short illness, Lyons died in Dublin in 1983, just shy of his 60th birthday.<ref name="times"/>

==Bibliography==
{{Expand list|date=September 2016}}
*{{cite book |author=Lyons, F. S. L. |title=The Irish Parliamentary Party, 1890–1910 |year=1951 <!--isbn=-->}}
*{{cite book |author=Lyons, F. S. L. |author-mask=1 |title=The fall of Parnell, 1890–91 |location=London |publisher=Routledge and Kegan Paul |year=1960 <!--isbn=-->}}
*''Internationalism in Europe 1815–1914'' (1963)
*''[[John Dillon]]: A Biography'' (1968)
*''Ireland Since the Famine'' (1971)
*''Charles Stewart Parnell'' (1977)
*''Culture and Anarchy in Ireland, 1890–1939'' (1979) – won the [[Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{succession box
|before = [[Albert Joseph McConnell]]
|title = [[List of Provosts of Trinity College Dublin|Provost of Trinity College Dublin]]
|years = 1974&ndash;1981
|after = [[William Arthur Watts]]
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Provosts of Trinity College Dublin}}
{{Wolfson History Prize Winners}}
{{Great Hunger}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, FSL}}
[[Category:1923 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Kent]]
[[Category:Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Prize recipients]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:Historians from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish historians]]
[[Category:Male non-fiction writers from Northern Ireland]]
[[Category:People educated at The High School, Dublin]]
[[Category:Scholars and academics from Derry (city)]]
[[Category:People from Boyle, County Roscommon]]
[[Category:Provosts of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Revisionist historians (Ireland)]]
[[Category:Scholars of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Historians of the Land War]]
[[Category:Irish expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Scholars and academics from County Roscommon]]
[[Category:Wolfson History Prize winners]]