‘Fearless’ Irish author Edna O’Brien dies aged 93
Renowned Irish author Edna O’Brien has passed away at the age of 93. According to her literary agent, PFD, and publisher, Faber, she died peacefully on Saturday after a prolonged illness. Their condolences are with her “family and friends, especially her sons Marcus and Carlo.”
Born in rural County Clare in 1930, O’Brien found her education under nuns stifling and relocated to Dublin to seek freedom, later spending much of her life in London.
She made her literary debut with “The Country Girls” in 1960. This groundbreaking novel, which explores the lives and sexuality of two female friends, caused a scandal in Ireland.
Her follow-up books, “The Lonely Girl” and “Girls in Their Married Bliss,” were also banned by the Irish government, with some copies even being burned, including in O’Brien’s hometown.
But the books became huge successes and were credited with challenging traditional societal views.
O’Brien wrote more than 20 novels, as well as dramas and biographies.
Many of her novels detailed the struggles of women in a male dominated world.
The writer was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Pen Nabokov prize.
Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins said he felt “great sorrow” and described O’Brien as 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.
“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.”
In 2020 Edna O’Brien told the Guardian newspaper that she had not had “that brilliant a life in many ways”.
She added: “It was quite difficult and that’s not said in self-pity but one thing that is true is that language and the mystery of language and the miracle of language has, as that lovely song Carrickfergus says, carried me over… the richness of great language.”
