Presented to the Calgary Women’s Literary Club by Anita M. on April 15, 2025.

In 1960, a young convent-schooled Irish woman with no formal literary education from a small Irish village published Country Girls, a story about two young girls that exposed and challenged the tight control by the clergy and male dominated society over women and openly talked about young girls’ sexuality. Edna O’Brien’s book was damned by local clergy while stories of it being burned at the pulpit have not been verified. The Censorship Board of Ireland banned her first six books, including Country Girls, which was deemed indecent and obscene.

O’Brien describes how an intensity of feeling that normal life can’t accommodate drove her to writing. Literary education came from reading widely and carefully observing the style of ‘great writers.’ An early influence was James Joyce whose works she copied onto notepads and could quote at length. From her first published stories in the late 1950s in women’s magazines, O’Brien’s writing style developed quickly with wide variations adapted for different venues and topics. Injustices in Ireland and abroad are highlighted by a personal style that was emotional and honest. She wrote passionately about the plight of abused and compromised women and girls, female sexuality and redemption. Moments of hope and happiness are expressed lyrically.

Though she resided in London most of her life, O’Brien’s ties to her homeland remained strong. An attractive woman circulating in London and abroad, she was named “Playgirl of the Western World” by Vanity Fair. This ‘playgirl’ published twenty novels, eight nonfiction books, eight short story collections and multiple dramas and screen plays in six decades of writing. In addition to awards for individual books, O’Brien was honored for her lifetime service to literature in Ireland with the Tore of the Saoi, appointed Honorary Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire, the David Cohen Prize for Literature and in France, Commander de le Ordre des Ares et des Lettres.

Edna O’Brien returned home to Ireland on her death, July 27, 2024, with a funeral service performed by clergy in the village church in Tuangrany where she was christened. Irish president Michael Higgins expressed his great sorrow at the passing of ‘one of the outstanding writers in modern time.’ The seagrass casket carrying her body was transported by a flotilla of lake boats across Lough Derg to her final resting place on Iris Cealtra, the Holy Island.

Written by Anita M.