33 Facts About Edna O'Brien

Josephine Edna O'Brien was an Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer.

Edna O'Brien was the recipient of many other awards and honours, winning the Irish PEN Award in 2001 and the biennial David Cohen Prize in 2019.

Josephine Edna O'Brien was born on 15 December 1930 to farmer Michael O'Brien and Lena Cleary, at Tuamgraney in County Clare, Ireland, a place she would later describe as "fervid" and "enclosed".

Edna O'Brien was the youngest child of "a strict, religious family".

From 1941 to 1946, Edna O'Brien was educated at St Raphael's College, a boarding school run by the Sisters of Mercy in Loughrea, County Galway, a circumstance that contributed to a "suffocating" childhood.

In 1950, having studied at night at a pharmaceutical college and worked in a Dublin pharmacy during the day, Edna O'Brien was awarded a licence as a pharmacist.

In Ireland, O'Brien read such writers as Tolstoy, Thackeray, and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Edna O'Brien published her first book, The Country Girls, in 1960.

Edna O'Brien herself was accused of "corrupting the minds of young women".

Edna O'Brien's parents were vehemently against all things related to literature and her mother strongly disapproved of her daughter's career as a writer.

Alongside Teddy Taylor, Michael Foot and Derek Worlock, O'Brien was a panel member for the first edition of the BBC's Question Time in 1979, and was awarded the first answer in the programme's history.

Also in 1980, Edna O'Brien appeared alongside Patrick McGoohan in the TV movie The Hard Way.

Edna O'Brien told Marianne Heron, of the Irish Independent, that she had told McGlinchey "that she liked everything about him except what he was [and] he told her that his mother said the same thing".

Edna O'Brien denied having an affair with McGlinchey, and claimed later that, as a result of her research, she had to refute questions as to whether she "had love affairs with republicans".

Edna O'Brien travelled to that country twice to do research, which included interviewing numerous people, from "escaped girls, their mothers and sisters, to trauma specialists, doctors and Unicef".

Edna O'Brien later said that she had tried to create a "kind of mythic story from all this pain and horror", and was disappointed by its poor reception in the US, although it was well-received in France and Germany.

Poet Imtiaz Dharker, judge for the 2019 David Cohen Prize, said about Girl: "I thought I had the course of Edna O'Brien's work mapped out before the judging came around, and then, towards the end of the process, another great tome dropped through the letterbox, changing the whole terrain".

Edna O'Brien's work includes references to Irish lore and history and mentions of distinctive geographic features such as Druids' circles, Inis Cealtra, and Lough Derg, County Donegal.

In 2010, Edna O'Brien formed an exclusive relationship with publisher Sabine Wespieser.

Edna O'Brien's work was much loved in France, "both for the quality of her writing but for her universal struggles which received a particular resonance in France".

In September 2021, it was announced that Edna O'Brien would be donating her archive to the National Library of Ireland.

The library was to hold papers from Edna O'Brien covering the period of 2000 to 2021, including correspondence, drafts, notes and revisions.

Edna O'Brien remained in London until her death, although she often visited Ireland.

Edna O'Brien socialised with glamorous men such as Marlon Brando and Robert Mitchum, but said later that she was "doing the cooking" at most of the parties.

Edna O'Brien died following a long illness in London, England, on 27 July 2024, at the age of 93.

Edna O'Brien is buried on Inis Cealtra, an island in Lough Derg.

Irish president Michael D Higgins, a writer and poet, wrote: "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".

Edna O'Brien's awards include the Yorkshire Post Book Award in 1970, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1990 for Lantern Slides.

In 2009, Edna O'Brien was honoured with the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award during a special ceremony at the year's Irish Book Awards in Dublin.

Edna O'Brien was presented with the Torc of the Saoi of Aosdana in 2015 by Irish President Michael D Higgins.

Edna O'Brien presented her with the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2018.

In 2019, Edna O'Brien was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature at a ceremony in London.

Judge David Park said "In winning the David Cohen Prize, Edna O'Brien adds her name to a literary roll call of honour".