Tributes are still being paid to the author John McGahern, who died yesterday in a Dublin hospital. He was 71.
One of Ireland's foremost authors, his memoir was published to great acclaim last year.
The EU Ambassador to the US and former Taoiseach, John Bruton, has said Mr McGahern was not only a great novelist and short story writer but, in many respects, he was a social historian of 20th century Ireland.
The President, Mary McAleese, yesterday led the tributes to Mr McGahern. She said Ireland had lost an outstanding literary talent who had made an enormous contribution to our self-understanding as a people.
The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, praised the writer's 'beautiful use of language' and described him as 'one of Ireland's finest writers ever'.
