Robert Lynd, an accomplished Irish literary and political essayist, was born in Belfast on 20 April 1879, the son of Robert John and Sarah Rentoul Lynd, and was educated at the Belfast Academical Institute and at Queen's College. His father was a Presbyterian minister and descendant of a line of ministers, and there were also divines on his mother's side. According to Desmond MacCarthy, his lifelong friend and fellow journalist, there was a family tradition that Lynd's great-grandfather emigrated from Scotland to Ireland because his congregation objected to the lavish display of silver buckle on his shoes. Lynd's father's family also farmed, and some of Lynd's more personal essays refer to boyhood days on the farm tending the livestock.

Given his Ulster-Presbyterian origins, Lynd's avowed, lifelong Irish nationalism indicates independence of mind. He was a supporter and apologist for the Sinn Fein movement, abhorrent to many Ulster Protestants, and also...