It is with sadness that the Irish Writers Union (IWU) notes the passing of Edna O’Brien at 93. A writer far ahead of her time who spoke with her own voice, she was the first Irish writer to write honestly about social and sexual issues faced by women at a time when Ireland was going through a particularly repressive and patriarchal, church-bound period following the Second World War.
Her first novel, The Country Girls, was not only banned in Ireland but burned and denounced from the pulpit. As honorary IWU member, President Michael D Higgins stated, this hostility came from those who “wished for the lived experience of women to remain far from the world of Irish literature”.
Fortunately, O’Brien was not deterred. The Country Girls went on to be a huge, popular success and O’Brien carved a prestigious and critical literary career internationally that lasted 60 years. She was a novelist, short story writer, writer of non-fiction, dramatist and children’s writer who also published one book of poetry, On The Bone (1989). Her non-fiction included a biography, Mother Ireland (1976), a memoir, Country Girl (2012) and a biography of James Joyce (1999). Her final book, Girl was published in 2019.
Her work garnered recognition across the world. Honours and awards included the Ordre des Artes et des Lettres (2021), Frances highest honour for the arts, the David Cohen Prize for Literature (2019, UK), the Irish Book Award’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2006) , the Irish Pen Award (2001), the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize (2011) and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize (1990) for Lantern Slides. In 2018, she was appointed Dame of the Order of the British Empire for her contributions to literature and also presented with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in Ireland.
Elected to Aosdána by her peers in 2015, O’Brien accepted the honorary title, Saoi; a title given for singular and sustained distinction in the arts.
The IWU nominated her as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature twice, certain that she deserved this international recognition.
Fortunately, in 2021, O’Brien donated her archive covering the period of 2000-2021 to the National Library of Ireland. This will, no doubt, serve the public and allow further appreciation of her work in the years to come.
Our sympathies go to her children, Carlo and Sasha Gebler, to her friends and colleagues.
