Tributes were paid on Sunday to radical Irish writer Edna O’Brien, whose debut novel “The Country Girls” was burned and banned in her native country after she died at the age of 93.
“He passed away peacefully on Saturday 27 July after a long illness,” said a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on behalf of his publisher, Faber Books.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said the country had lost “an icon” and “a courageous, brilliant, distinguished and charming man”.
“Most people would have hidden themselves in the face of the misogyny she faced, but Edna O’Brien continued to work on her craft and became one of the most famous and respected writers of modern Ireland,” she said in a statement on social media.
“We must all reflect and never forget that in order to reach her potential Edna left Ireland and made London her home.”
Irish President Michael D. Higgins said he received the news of the death of his “dear friend” O’Brien with “great sadness”.
He said in a statement that she was “one of the outstanding writers of modern times” and “a woman who fearlessly spoke the truth.”
She added: “While the beauty of her work was instantly recognised abroad, it is important to remember that it generated a hostile reaction from those who wanted the lived experience of women to be kept out of the world of Irish literature, and her books were shamefully banned at the time of their initial publication.”
Former Irish Prime Minister and current Foreign and Defence Minister Micheál Martin praised O’Brien as a trailblazing figure who was never afraid to push boundaries through her work, who “helped usher in a new era in literature and in modern Ireland.”
Culture Minister Catherine Martin described O’Brien as “a modernising force in Irish society who boldly championed the cause of equality.”
Breaking down barriers
The honors he eventually received from his home country of Ireland included the Presidential Distinguished Service Award in 2018.
“The Country Girls” (1960), about the sexual initiation of rebellious Catholic girls, drawn from O’Brien’s childhood experiences, is now an icon for the breaking of social and sexual taboos in modern Irish literature.
O’Brien was born in 1930 into a staunchly Catholic farming family in County Clare in western Ireland.
She was educated at a convent school and then in Dublin, where she received her pharmacist’s license in 1950. It was during this time that she discovered her fascination with Leo Tolstoy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T. S. Eliot.
In 2018, she won the prestigious PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature, awarded for breaking down “social and sexual barriers for women in Ireland and beyond”.
In 2021, France made him a Commander in the “Ordre des Arts et des Lettres”, the country’s highest cultural honour.
She received France’s Prix Femina special award in 2019, which honors her body of work.
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