Editing Denis Devlin (section)

==Early life and studies==

He was born in [[Greenock]], [[Scotland]] of [[Ireland|Irish]] parents, and his family returned to live in [[Dublin]] in 1918. He studied at [[Belvedere College]] and, from 1926, as a seminarian for the [[Roman Catholic]] [[priesthood]] at [[Clonliffe College]]. As part of his studies, he attended a degree course in modern languages at [[University College Dublin]] (UCD), where he met and befriended [[Brian Coffey]]. Together they published a joint collection, ''Poems'', in 1930.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coffey |first=Brian |title=Poems |last2=Devlin |first2=Denis |publisher=Alex Thom & Co. |year=1930 |location=Dublin |language=English}}</ref>

In 1927, Devlin abandoned the priesthood and left Clonliffe. He graduated with from UCD his [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in 1930 and spent that summer on the [[Blasket Islands]] to improve his spoken [[Irish language|Irish]]. Between 1930 and 1933, he studied literature at [[Munich University]] and the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in [[Paris]], meeting, amongst others, Beckett and [[Thomas MacGreevy]]. He then returned to UCD to complete his [[Master's degree|MA]] [[thesis]] on [[Montaigne]].

His niece [[Denyse Woods]] went on to become a writer.