Irish writer Edna O’Brien’s dying wish was to go home one last time, according to her family, and it is expected her funeral will take place in her native county Clare in the coming weeks.
Described as one of Ireland’s finest writers and a fearless teller of truths, Ms O’Brien famed for the Country Girls and dozens of other well known publications, died in London at the weekend at the age of 93.
Speaking on RTE’s Drivetime, Ms O’Brien’s nephew Michael Blake said she “always loved coming home to Ireland, but often said it was easier to write about Ireland from outside of it” as there was obviously more anonymity in living somewhere like London.
He said that for “her final resting place” she wanted to come home to Ireland.
Mr Blake was with his aunt until her death in London on Saturday and said that she had “wrote me her instructions over ten years ago”, outlining her wish to be brought home for a “service in the Church in Tuamgraney where she was christened and had communion”.
She is “going to be buried on Holy Island”, he added, referring to the ancient monastic settlement off the western shores of Lough Derg where the cemetery is still in use and remains are transported by boat for burial there.
Mr Blake who runs the East Clare Equestrian Centre is the Chef D’Equipe or High Performance Director of the Irish senior showjumping team and was travelling today to the Paris Olympics. He said he felt privileged to spend time with his aunt in London over the last week, “right up until she left this world easily and peacefully” on Saturday.
He said she was a “fanatic sportswoman who loved soccer, jumping, racing, you’d find it hard to imagine how interested she was in all sports”, expressing the hope that she may be “looking down on us in Paris and might give us a leg up!”
Formal arrangements for Ms O’Brien’s funeral are still being finalised and may take some time to confirm, Mr Blake said as he spoke of a “proud but lonely” time for her grieving sons and grandchildren as they say farewell to “one of the bravest women” he ever knew.
She was “brave when it was hard to be brave” and “what needed to be said, she said it, that’s the way to live”.
Books of condolence for Ms O’Brien are due to be opened in the coming days at Clare County Council headquarters in Ennis, where the local authority recently commissioned a large mural of the iconic feminist and writer at Wood Quay in the town, and also at the public library in Scariff which was formally named the “Edna O’Brien Library” in May of this year.
Though unable to attend, Ms O’Brien sent a letter to be read on that occasion outlining how she had loved the library “because I learned bits of poems, bits of history and bits of folklore that I would otherwise not have known or gone towards.
“I liked to have others around me rather than the silence at home,” she wrote, and “came across some of the more vivid accounts in Irish History…it was a stepping stone to worlds beyond”.
“Buildings and walls and places carry in them stories that came before”, she added in good humour, saying she was “very honoured to have the library named after me”, but “hope it doesn’t fall down!”