Ireland

Nuala O'Faolain dies at 68

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The journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain has died. She was 68.

She died peacefully at the Blackrock Hospice just before midnight last night.

Nuala O'Faolain became internationally well-known for her two volumes of memoirs, Are You Somebody? and Almost There; a novel, My Dream of You, and a history with commentary, The Story of Chicago May.

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She was educated at University College Dublin, the University of Hull, and Oxford University.

She taught for a time at Morley College, and worked as television producer for RTÉ and for the BBC.

In 1985, she won a Jacob's Award as producer of the RTÉ programme Plain Times, and The Story of Chicago May was awarded the Prix Femina in 2006.

Her father was also a well-known journalist, writing the Dubliners Diary social column under the pen-name Terry O'Sullivan for the Evening Press.

Ms O'Faolain never married. In Are You Somebody?, she speaks openly about her 15-year relationship with the journalist Nell McCafferty, who published her own memoir, Nell.

After being diagnosed with metastatic cancer, Nuala O'Faolain was interviewed on the Marian Finucane radio show on RTÉ Radio One about her terminal illness.

She said 'I don't want more time. As soon as I heard I was going to die, the goodness went from life.'

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Nuala O'Faolain 1940-2008
Nuala O'Faolain
1940-2008
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