Title
Poyntz, Sarah
Description
Bibliographic Dictionary Entry
Date
1926-2020
Creator
O'Toole, Tina
Source
Munster Women Writers Project, University College Cork
Publisher
Women in Irish Society Project, University College Cork
Rights
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Coverage
Munster, Ireland, 1800-2000
Format
Text
Language
en
Type
Text
Subject
Women, Writers, Munster
Contributor
O'Toole, Tina
Birth Date
1926
Death Date
2020
Birthplace
New Ross, Co Wexford
Place of Association
Burren, Co Clare
Biographical Text
Sarah H. J. Poyntz was born in 1926 in New Ross, Co. Wexford, received her secondary education in Gorey, Co. Wexford before going to UCD where she was a student of Lorna Reynolds (the literary scholar and biographer of Kate O'Brien) whose guidance she has acknowledged publicly. In the 1950s she worked as a teacher in London, Cornwall and Cambridge. In 1971 she was awarded a fellowship to study for a term at Girton College while continuing to teach English at Perse School for Girls in Cambridge. Ill-health forced her to take early retirement but she continued to teach on a part-time basis both at her old school and at Girton College. With her lifelong friend, Professor Mary Ann Radzinowicz, she spent several years in New York where Radzinowicz was Professor of English at Cornell University. They spent their summer holidays in Ireland before finally retiring to Ballyvaughan in Co. Clare. Poyntz has lived there since 1986 where she writes, builds model ships and does gardening. Since 1900 she has been writing a Country Diary for the Guardian newspaper in North Tipperary. These writings formed the basis of A Burren Journal published in 2000.
Writing Genre
Memoirs
Journalism