Eighteen months after leaving Rugby, on the advice of Francis Edgeworth, he then went to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, to study law, but, having on his own account "had a wild time as part of the smart set" and anticipating rustication after a drunken incident, he left after three terms.

[3] Lysaght took up residence in a caravan at Lahinch, County Clare, Ireland, where he had previously holidayed and become friendly with local people.

His father, himself strongly connected to his Irish boyhood and wanting to establish himself as a "country gentleman", recognized his son's enthusiasm for Ireland and in 1909 bought a 600-acre estate at Tuamgraney, at which Lysaght would farm until 1913, introducing an electrical generator and other forms of modernization[4] including the development of a limekiln, nursery, and school where young men of means could learn the basics of farming.

[4] This was the beginning of a metamorphosis for Lysaght; although of English upbringing, he disliked the local gentry, considering them "layabout rentiers", and preferred to make friendships amongst employees and his neighbours.

He sought to replace his English accent with a Clare one, and eschewed his lack of religion (despite an Anglican upbringing)[5] of a few years before in favour of Roman Catholicism, and became involved in the Gaelic League.

She was born and raised in South Africa, her father a civil servant there, but had an Irish family including a local postmistress.

Mabel introduced him to friends in the Arts Club, and Lysaght entered Dublin literary society; his "somewhat overdone" attempts to "give himself a new, more Irish identity" were noticed by acquaintances.

The execution of close friends such as Conor Clune of Quin in November 1920 and the subsequent devastating raids on his farm resulted in his playing a far more active role in Sinn Féin as a loyal supporter of the new TD for Clare, Éamon de Valera.