Sarah Smyth

Many condolences to Sarah's family. I have many fond memories of Sarah from Trinity. She introduced me to many new ideas and ways of looking at literature and language. She was a great teacher and always good fun. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Ah, sad to hear of Sarah's passing. An excellent teacher, patient, witty and unflappable. Interesting and interested. I was very fortunate to have Sarah as my dissertation supervisor. Only the other day I recalled her slightly disapproving but mostly whimsical look 20 years ago as I tried to render a typical Soviet joke with some Cork colour to impress a classmate at the end of a lecture. Needless to say, her facial expression carried more wit than my joke. Bless her memory.

Ar deis Dé go raibh a hanam dilís. A wonderful lecturer and great support always to all her students. Thank you Sarah for being such a gifted and genuinely beautiful person.

So sad to hear of Sarah's passing. I only had the opportunity to work with her occasionally in Trinity, but was always impressed by her intelligence, integrity and sincere concern for students. Deepest condolences to all who loved her.

I am so sorry and sad to hear of Sarah's passing. She was a real light in my time in college. She was so accomplished and gifted, but yet engaged with everyone in such a warm and understanding way. I remember she made me feel equal, and as if I belonged, and taught me to celebrate my individuality, and that made such a profound impact on me. She is such a loss.

Sincere condolences to Sarah’s siblings and all her family. She was a highly esteemed, impressive colleague who carried demanding administrative workloads already as a lecturer, in addition to her enormous commitment to her students which the grateful testimonies above illustrate so clearly. Her fairness and integrity as Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies are a lasting memory. It was uplifting to meet her on the 5th floor or in the staircase of the Arts Block. May she and Stanford Kingston rest in peace.

My heartfelt sympathies to Sarah's family. She was an incredibly inspiring, dedicated, compassionate educator whose legacy is felt far and wide.

I was hugely sorry to hear of Sarah's passing. I studied Russian from 1993-1997, and Sarah's calm, wise, infinitely knowledgeable teaching was the backbone of my degree. As others have said, she treated us students as adults and always took our contributions seriously. The sheer commitment she showed to designing and delivering beginners' Russian teaching, week in week out, was inspiring - with none of the online resources available today. I will always remember her second year module on Russian literature as a masterclass on teaching theory and literature in tandem. Sarah supported us all personally as well as intellectually at a formative time in our lives, and I am forever grateful. Спасибо agus go raibh mile, mile maith agat, Sarah.

I was so very sorry to hear of Sarah's passing. She will be very greatly missed. I was one of her students 1994-1998. She was a wonderful teacher; caring, patient and so very engaging. As others have mentioned here, she was a large part of how the student cohorts bonded so well with each other and with the (at that time, much smaller!) Russian Department. Whenever I encountered her in TCD in later years, it was always with great pleasure.
My heartfelt condolences to Sarah's family. May she rest in peace.

Paddy, Lucy and Malachy, my sincere condolences on the loss of Sarah.

Over the years our paths didn’t cross often but when they did I always came away the happier for the encounter.

I found her an enthusiastic and persuasive champion of the Trinity Centre for Literary Translation and such a kind presence at Glengara Park Nursing Home where we occasionally met when she was visiting Jennifer and I, my own parents.

Sarah was such a warm person and will be sorely missed. Thinking of you all at this sad time.

My deepest condolences on Sarah's passing.

deepest sympathy to Sarah's family and friends. As well as a noted and beloved teacher at Trinity College she was also a comitted tutor, providing pastoral care to many many students and advocating for them when the going got tough.

My deepest sympathies to Sarah's family, friends and colleagues. It was a privilege to be one of Sarah's students - her passion for language and literature was inspiring and she had a strong positive impact on all those she worked with.

Вечная память! Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

It’s fitting to me, on Международный женский день, that I’d have the honor of writing about a strong female influence on my life and its trajectory to Russia.

I decided to study Russian at a time when it was particularly unpopular, especially for Americans, and I was Sarah’s student at TCD from 2000-2004. I’m so glad now that there weren’t more of us; it allowed us to form bonds we still have today. And I know Sarah was instrumental in shaping those bonds in an unbreakable way.

In later years, I was able to reconnect with Sarah professionally. I was still transfixed by her kind, intelligent, alert eyes, and the way she could stare right through me when I was trying to impress her.

But I’ll try one last time:

1) I quit smoking!
2) I’m still disco-dancing!
3) I promise I’ll give stand-up another try.

Thank you for your years of guidance and encouragement and friendship.

My sympathyies to Sarah's family, friends and colleagues. She was a wonderful and patient teacher and gave me so much support during my student days in the Russian Department in TCD. Rest in Peace Sarah x

Sarah was the most significant and memorable figure for me in my student years in Trinity. She was interested in people, wise, funny and caring, a great listener with a great and ready laugh. She invited my whole class to her house for a party in her garden once and I got to meet the delightful Stanford. She seemed happy and fulfilled, and very loyal to her family. She witnessed so many young people mature into adulthood under her guiding light.

My sincerest condolences to all those in Sarah's world.

As a former student of the Russian Department in Trinity, I remember fondly Sarah's wit and her practicality as she readied us for the Great Adventure. Most of all, though, I remember her compassion, her way of looking at what was often the mess of our lives, never from above, but with hand outstretched - to guide, and then to let us go on, steadied. The Russian Department I studied in felt like family, and I suspect Sarah's spirit was a large part of that.

To you, Sarah - to your gusto and wisdom and compassion. Спасибо, спасибо.

"You who do not remember
passage from the other world
I tell you I could speak again: whatever returns from oblivion returns to find a voice:

from the center of my life came
a great fountain, deep blue
shadows on azure sea water."

Like so many others whose lives she played such a significant role in, I came to know Sarah during my time at university.

As I was finding my feet in adulthood I was so extraordinarily fortunate to suddenly find myself in contact with someone whose enthusiasm, goodwill, kindness, intelligence, humour, patience and unabating support and encouragement was a constant source of inspiration and mentorship.

I learned a great deal more about Slavonic languages and culture than I could ever have imagined possible, but I was also introduced to an enduring role model whose enthusiasm for learning and knowledge to be used for the selfless support and betterment of others made a profound difference to many lives. She will be greatly missed.

I shall be ever grateful, and my sincerest condolences to all family and loved ones.

I was a student in the Russian department under Sarah between 2008 and 2012.

As many people are writing here, she was an extraordinary person and teacher, without question one of the greatest I have had. I feel she helped shape my life and I know others do too. I am immensely grateful to have been her student and for her advice and care. She was an inspiration to us— to learn and I think, just by how she was, how to approach life.

Wise phrases Sarah said to me will still occasionally just come to me. I can also still hear her unmistakeable voice speaking Russian.

When I think of her, I think of extraordinary depth and clarity, her rigour and encouragement, her often amused patience and her way of listening. When you asked her a question, she would reveal depths in it you had no idea of. She had incredible generosity and interest in her students that opened so much for them.

She was someone who embodied the beauty of learning and understanding across cultures and the richness that comes from it. There was something foundational about Sarah. She was a keystone for people in Ireland studying Russia and she built so much. We were all so lucky she was there and we will deeply miss her.
Спасибо за все Сара!

Sarah was wonderfully interesting and compassionate during my time at Trinity (and in the years beyond). I feel so grateful to have had her as a mentor. Heartfelt condolences to her family.

The world is now missing a beautiful soul. Sarah was kindness, warmth, humanity and fun. I loved my times with Sarah and her beloved Stanford and these memories lift my heart in times of sadness. May Sarah rest in peace.

We had the pleasure of meeting Sarah in many a fitness session over her years at Trinity Sport. Her enthuastic smiles and encouragement of commerades in her class and online during our Covid zoom sessions was a testimony to her good nature. She will be sadly missed by us. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

Deepest sympathies to Patrick and to all Sarah’s family, friends and former Trinity colleagues on your sad loss. Thinking of you all at this time and sending very best wishes and sincere condolences, Ivana.

A long fight bravely fought, a life well lived and also thinking of Stanford who she looked after so well, our thoughts are with you all

My deepest condolences to all Sarah's family, friends, and colleagues. She had such a positive influence on so many people. Rest in peace.

May I offer my deepest condolences to Sarah’s family. I am very honoured and grateful that I knew Sarah and had an opportunity to learn from her.

It is a privilege to have known you, dear Sarah, and to have worked with you. May you be resting in eternal peace.

I was so sad to hear of Sarah's passing. She was a wonderful teacher and a genuinely lovely person. With endless patience, kindness and a wry sense of humour, she inspired, motivated and encouraged a generation of students. I was immensely lucky to have been one of them from 1989-92. My sincere condolences to her family. May she rest in peace.

Sarah was a wonderful, vibrant and always supportive colleague in Trinity. Heartfelt sympathy to all her family and her colleagues in the Russian department.

My most sincere condolences to all of Sarah's family on the passing of a remarkable woman so soon after the passing of her mother.
- Dermot Bolger

My deepest condolences to Sarah's family and friends. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to Sarah. Her endless patience and unwavering generosity of spirit shepherded me through some very tough times in my student days. My friends and I often reminisce about our time in the Russian Department and the indelible influence she had on us all. From Room 5051 all the way to Moscow, she encouraged, engaged and enthralled.

Спасибо вам за все. Пусть земля вам будет пухом.

Everything that has been said in gratitude and praise of Sarah is true. She was a wonderful colleague and friend to all who worked in the Trinity language departments, in whatever capacity. Wise, caring, constructive, brilliant, patient, fair-minded, witty, unassuming, Sarah would certainly shrug off any attempt to link her to a phrase in a Solzhenitzyn story, "... she was that one righteous person without whom, as the saying goes, no city can stand. Nor the world."

I am shocked and saddened to learn that Sarah has passed away. Our paths crossed many times in Trinity - from undergraduate days to the HDipEd year and at subsequent language and education events. The TCLCT was a fantastic achievement from which language and literature lovers benefit hugely. We owe her so much.
With my deepest sympathy to all Sarah’s family,

I was very sorry and shocked to learn of Sarah's passing. I have very fond memories of her in Trinity. When I was starting my degree in Russian, she was at the end of hers, a strong presence to whom my fellow first years and I looked up in some awe. A decade later, when she was newly installed as Thomas Brown Lecturer in Russian, our paths crossed again. I was teaching in the Department of French, and we would often have lunch together, or meet in the evening with Stanford and Sheila Watts, "to speak of many things ... of cabbages and kings". Those were wonderful moments. She was a great conversationalist, very wise, kind, and avuncular to me in my callowness, a dear friend. I shall not forget her. Requiescat in pace.

I was a doctoral student in the Department of Russian and Slavonic Studies between 2011 and 2016. I remember Sarah as a kind, witty, and giving person. When she became aware of my dire financial situation in 2016 (I could no longer afford to pay for my fees), she gave me a job cataloguing books at the Department’s library. I still have the catalogues somewhere; it was a kind of journey back in time in English and Russian across the Department’s history. Sarah valued academic passion and integrity, which she combined with a deeply humanistic approach. Under her leadership the Department was a place of excellence in research, where intellectual curiosity and passion for learning and understanding other cultures was actively encouraged.

Rest in power, dear Sarah!

My condolences to all Sarah's family and friends for your loss.

Sarah instilled in me and in a generation of students of Russian a great love for the Russian language and literature. She was by far the best teacher I ever had. She was invested in her students and wanted the best for us academically and personally. She was a wonderful mentor during my years at Trinity in the early 1990s and I stayed in touch with her long afterwards, meeting her in Moscow and Dublin over the years.

Благодарю вас за все, что вы сделали в этой жизни. Пусть ваша душа покоится в мире.

I owe Sarah so much. She was never my lecturer but she was always my mentor and friend. She believed in me before I believed in myself. Her office door was always open and we worked and discussed a whole range of things together - including i think me formatting her first book.
Dinners at homes, walking through Moscow in the winter, discussing ikons and Bulgakov, her mother’s books, and with Stanford always looping back to education and the church.
I was so shocked to get a whatsapp from her letting me know she was passing to new chapter of life. But appreciative I was able to reply and say thank you and goodbye.
So dearly missed and incredibly grateful for the impact she had on my, and so many other people’s lives.
Ex TCD ex Wesley ex unofficial friend of Russian department

I was absolutely heartbroken to hear of Sarah's passing. She was not just an incredible teacher, but a true mentor who believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. I am forever grateful for her guidance. My deepest condolences to her family.

I’m sorry to hear this sad news. Sarah was a beautiful person and my deepest condolences to Patrick, Lucy & Malachi.

My condolences to all of Sarah's family. She was a wonderfully patient teacher, with Russian I could've listened to all day long. It was such a pleasure to be back in contact with her in recent years, and to be given her time and her advice. She'll be missed by so many.

Very sad news. Sarah was a kind, and remarkably supportive, educator who made a real difference. and my condolences to you all.

I was so sad to hear about Sarah’s passing. We first met in January 1995 when worked in the Russian Department. I will never forget Sarah’s kindness, encouragement and warmth. She always had time for a chat anytime we met, and was so welcoming when I returned to Trinity in 2008. She was a wonderful lady who has left an indelible mark on my life, and will be deeply missed by all who knew her.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.

I am shocked and saddened to hear of Sarah's untimely death. I knew her as a student and colleague, and knew even more of her reputation. She lived a very full life, and had a positive influence on so many people. I am sure she will be resting in peace now.

Sincere condolences to Sarah's family and friends. She was one of a kind and will be very much missed by all who were fortunate enough to meet her.

Mo chomhbhrón lena muintir. Go raibh suaimhneas síoraí ar a hanam uasal.

I am truly so sad to learn of Sarah’s passing - I met Sarah when we worked together on the steering committee of the Post Primary Languages Initiative and she was such a powerful advocate, a font of wisdom and knowledge and a very kind person… it was my privilege to have known her. My sincere condolences to her family and friends. 🌹

My deepest sympathies to Sarah's family, friends, colleagues, and many students who mourn her and will endeavour to uphold her exceptional legacy. May she rest in eternal peace.

Sincere sympathy to Sarah's family, colleagues and friends. She was an indefatigable champion of literature and translation. The Trinity Centre for Literary Translation (now TCLCT) would not have become a reality without her persistence, persuasion, pragmatism and good humour. As one of many freelance literary translators who crossed paths with her, I am enormously grateful to Sarah. Her legacy will live on. May she rest in peace.

Sarah was such a gentle, astute leader. She was so generous with her time and her expertise and really modelled what a good academic life could look like. Her kindness and good humour were always visible and will always be remembered. RIP Sarah.

Sarah was a wonderful teacher, and I looked forward to Russian classes in the Submarine. She was one of the good ones. I’m saddened to hear of her passing, my condolences to all of her friends and family.

Deepest condolences to Sarah's family. This was a real teacher. A kind, giving, strong person, dedicated to education. Sarah opened the door to the beauty of grammar and literature, encouraged us to think for ourselves, and did it all with joy and a great sense of humour. It is a privilege to have studied with her. I will always be grateful. Вечная память.

I am shocked and deeply saddened to hear of Sarah’s passing. She was the kindest
colleague - always supportive, engaged, and receptive. I will miss having her to turn to. May she rest in peace.

Thanks for everything Sarah.
Your kindness and positivity made discovering the Russian language an adventure.

So sorry to hear this sad news. Sarah taught me in the early 1990s. At that time the Russian department felt like a small family and that was in large part down to Sarah. I feel very privileged to have had such a great teacher. She was funny, cool, whip-smart and interested in us - almost as if she were treating us as equals if we were up for it. It is only now, years later, as I watch my own kids go through college that I realise just how much she gave us and how lucky and happy we were. Спасибо большое Sarah, присядем на дорожку.
Sincere condolences to all her family and friends.

I was very sorry to learn the sad news of Sarah's death. I first got to know Sarah when I was Dean of Graduate Studies and was instantly struck by her approachability, integrity, sense of justice, collegiality, ability and wry sense of humour. Thereafter, it was always a pleasure to meet her at various events: she was someone one could easily talk to. My sincere condolences to all her family.

I met Sarah in 2012 at the Trinity Long Room Hub, where I was working as a resident literary translator. She was Head of the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultural Studies at the time, and what struck me immediately was how genuinely she engaged with the work — not from obligation, but from real curiosity and care.
She supported my plan to pursue a PhD and offered without hesitation to be my referee. Life took its winding course, and it has taken me more than a decade to finally begin that journey, here in Australia. I had wanted to tell her. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance.
Sarah had a rare gift: she made you feel that what you were doing mattered. That languages, literature, and translation were not peripheral pursuits but essential ones. That belief stayed with me long after our time at Trinity overlapped.
My deepest condolences to her family and all who loved her. She shaped more people than she probably knew.

Sincere condolences to Sarah’s family on their loss. RIP.

Sarah was such a lovely colleague - as witty and compassionate as she was intelligent.

It was always a pleasure whenever I had the opportunity to work alongside her.

Deepest condolences to Paddy and all Sarah's family, friends and colleagues.
Вечная Память!

May she rest in peace.
A brilliant and inspirational teacher.

We are so sorry to hear of Sarah’s passing. She was the best of neighbours — always kind, generous and so welcoming. We will miss her dearly. Keeping you all in our thoughts.