Edna O’Brien, one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers, has died at the age of 93.
Her literary agent, PFD, and publisher, Faber, said in a joint statement that Ms O’Brien died peacefully on Saturday after a long illness. “Our thoughts are with her family and friends, in particular her sons Marcus and Carlo. The family has requested privacy at this time,” it said.
Born and raised in Tuamgraney, Co Clare, she was the author of more than 20 novels as well as biographies of James Joyce and Lord Byron in addition to plays, screenplays and a memoir.
In the Ireland of the 1950s her books and her portrayal of female sexuality proved highly controversial.
Her debut trilogy of novels – The Country Girls (1960), The Lonely Girl (later renamed Girl with the Green Eyes) (1962) and Girls in Their Married Bliss (1963) – were famously banned by the Irish censorship board.
However, she was also the recipient of many awards.
These included the Pen Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature in 2018 and the David Cohen prize for literature in 2019.
Ms O’Brien was conferred with honorary doctorates by Galway University, Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Limerick. In 2006 University College Dublin awarded her the Ulysses Medal, the highest prize the university can bestow.
In September 2015 she was elected as a Saoi of Aosdána in a ceremony presided over by President Michael D Higgins.
On Sunday the president described Edna O’Brien as one of the outstanding writers of modern times. He said her work had been sought as model all around the world.
“Edna was a fearless teller of truths, a superb writer possessed of the moral courage to confront Irish society with realities long ignored and suppressed.”
“Through that deeply insightful work, rich in humanity, Edna O’Brien was one of the first writers to provide a true voice to the experiences of women in Ireland in their different generations and played an important role in transforming the status of women across Irish society.”
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“While the beauty of her work was immediately recognised abroad, it is important to remember the hostile reaction it provoked among those who wished for the lived experience of women to remain far from the world of Irish literature, with her books shamefully banned upon their early publication.”
Taoiseach Simon Harris paid tribute to Ms O’Brien saying “Ireland has lost an icon”.
He said she was “a brave, gifted, dignified and magnetic person”.
Mr Harris noted that she wrote her debut novel, The Country Girls, in just three weeks and said: “Sixty-four years on it is not only a remarkable piece of work but still a landmark moment for Irish women and society.
“The book would be banned and burned but Edna O’Brien would never be silenced.”
Mr Harris said: “Most people would have stopped and hidden away with the misogyny she faced but Edna O’Brien kept working on her artistry and became one of modern Ireland’s most celebrated and honoured writers.”
He said her memoir, Country Girl, “is a beautiful and raw piece of work where Edna O’Brien bares her soul” and Mr Harris said: “It is for all of us to reflect upon, and never forget, that to reach her potential Edna would leave Ireland and make London her home.”
Mr Harris also said: “She beautifully summed up herself and this Anglo/Irish experience and identity of so many people when she spoke of, ‘the wedding of the country of Ireland and the country of England in me.’”
Mr Harris expressed his “heartfelt condolences” to her family and “legions of fans” on “the passing of such a special person”.
He continued: “Edna said that her writing was her breathing and in recent years while promoting her novel, Girl, she told interviewers, ‘I want to go out as someone who spoke the truth’.
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“To say Edna O’Brien achieved this and so much more is the understatement of the century. May she rest in peace.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she is “very sad” to hear of Ms O’Brien’s death describing her online as “one of Ireland’s literary giants” and “a trailblazer for women”.
Ms McDonald said: “She broke down societal barriers, pushed boundaries, and broadened horizons of imagination and creativity for generations.
“Her legacy will live on and grow every time somebody discovers and falls in love with her incredible writing. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam”.
Minister for Culture Catherine Martin said: “With the passing of Edna O’Brien, Ireland has lost one of its greatest writers.
“A gifted story teller, Edna was a modernising force in Irish society who fearlessly advanced the cause of equality.
“My deepest sympathies to her family and many friends Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam”.
Faber, her publisher, said she was one of the greatest writers of our age.
“She revolutionised Irish literature, capturing the lives of women and the complexities of the human condition in prose that was luminous and spare, and which had a profound influence on so many writers who followed her.
“A defiant and courageous spirit, Edna constantly strove to break new artistic ground, to write truthfully, from a place of deep feeling. The vitality of her prose was a mirror of her zest for life: she was the very best company, kind, generous, mischievous, brave. Edna was a dear friend to us all, and we will miss her dreadfully. It is Faber’s huge privilege to publish her, and her bold and brilliant body of work lives on,” it said.
Literary agent Caroline Michel of PFD said: “In Girl with Green Eyes, the immortal centrepiece of the masterful Country Girls trilogy, Edna writes:
‘We all leave one another. We die … If I do leave you, I will have passed on to you something of myself; you will be a different person because of knowing me; it’s inescapable.’
“Edna is inescapable … once read, once met, she is forever rebelliously and joyously in your life,” she said.
Edna O’Brien was educated as a boarder at the Convent of Mercy, Loughrea, Co Galway. She moved to Dublin and studied at night to become a pharmacist. However, she always wanted to be a writer and in 1948 she began writing for the Irish Press.
In 1952, she met the writer, Ernest Gébler, 20 years her senior. When her family disapproved of the relationship, the couple moved to England and married in 1954. They had two sons, Karl (later Carlo) and Marcus.
The couple separated in 1964 and divorced in 1968.