McGahern, John
John McGahern (1934 - 2006) was a novelist and short story writer.
The son of a teacher and a Garda, John McGahern was born in Dublin and grew up in County Leitrim.
Following the death of his mother when he was ten years old, John McGahern and his four siblings were sent to live with his father at the Cootehall Garda barracks, where his father was a sergeant. It proved to be a most unhappy environment, but a scholarship to secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon allowed him to leave.
He trained to be a teacher at St Patrick's College Drumcondra in the 1950s. He worked on building sites in England during his summer holidays to support himself financially. In 1955 he began teaching at St John the Baptist national school, Clontarf. He studied in University College Dublin (UCD) at night and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1957.
During this time that he began to write a novel which was not published but led to him writing 'The Barracks' which was published in 1963 and won an Irish Arts Council Award. On the back of this he won a fellowship allowing him to travel and take a year off from teaching. During this time he met his first wife, Finnish theatre director Annikki Laaski (they divorced in 1968).
In 1965 his novel 'The Dark' was banned by the Irish Board of Censorship and he was dismissed from his teaching post in Clontarf. Moving to England he worked on building sites and as a substitute teacher before becoming a Research Fellow at the University of Reading, and resumed writing fiction.
A temporary post as visiting professor at Colgate University, Hamilton, New York in 1969 was to be the first of several similar positions there.
Returning to Ireland in 1970 with his partner Madeline Greene (they later married) he combined writing with farming and teaching at third level.
His short story collection 'Nightlines' was published in 1970, followed by the novels ‘The Leavetaking’ in 1975, ‘The Pornographer’ in 1978 and as well as two more collections of short stories.
The novel ‘Amongst Women’ was published in 1990 and nominated for the Booker Prize. It also brought him national recognition as a much-loved writer. His final novel ‘That They May Face The Rising Sun’ won literary awards and was widely read in Ireland.
John McGahern’s final work ‘Memoir’ was published in 2005, a year before he died. He received acclaim during his lifetime and following his passing for a unique literary style and an ability to capture the spirit and beauty of rural life in Ireland, as well as its harsh realities.