Huxley finally became an Irish citizen in 2018 at the age of 86, having spent a good part of his life teaching here
Huxley who was extremely well liked by both colleagues and students, continued to deliver annual lectures at Maynooth University as adjunct chair of classics, into his 80s. He was also an active member of the Royal Irish Academy since the early 1970s. A prolific writer, he wrote hundreds of journal articles. His books include Achaeans and the Hittites , The Early Ionians , On Aristotle and Greek Society and Homer and the Travellers .
In 1956, he was appointed assistant director of the British School in Athens for two academic years. During this time, he did a study of Early Greek chronology and history and in particular the historical development of the Greek epic poetry. From 1962-1983, Huxley taught Greek at Queen’s University Belfast, during which time the family lived in south Belfast. Dr Maureen Alden, classics scholar and former lecturer in Greek at Queen’s, said that Huxley had an extraordinary capacity for friendship. “He had so many friends. He could be quite formal and had immaculate manners but he was extremely warm,” she said.
Along with other academics, Huxley was vociferously opposed to the closure of a number of the arts and humanities departments, including Greek, Latin and Classical Studies, at Queen’s in the late 1990s and early 2000s. At the time, he wrote long, impassioned letters to English and Irish newspapers, including The Irish Times, decrying the decision of the authorities at Queen’s. In his early days in Belfast, he also lobbied for better housing for Catholics.
From 1986-1989, he served as director of the Gennadius Library at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens which is one of the most important libraries in Greece. He became honorary professor of Greek at TCD in 1989 and in 1999, he was appointed honorary professor of the Classical Association of Ireland.
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