The funeral of acclaimed Irish writer Edna O'Brien is to take place in her native Co Clare on Saturday.
The author of The Country Girls trilogy and more than 30 other works spent most of her life in London, where she died peacefully on 27 July.
However she had expressed her wish to return to her home parish of Tuamgraney in east Clare and the church where she was baptised for her funeral service, according to her family.
Her nephew Michael Blake told RTÉ’s Drivetime that she wished to buried on Holy Island, an ancient monastic site in Lough Derg, where her grandparents are buried.
She "always loved coming home to Ireland, but often said it was easier to write about Ireland from outside of it" as there was obviously more anonymity in living somewhere like London, he said.
The historic cemetery is still in use on Holy Island, which is also known as Inis Cealtra, with locals transporting remains there by boat for burial.
A funeral noticed published on the RIP.ie website has now confirmed that the late "Dame Edna O’Brien" of "Ovington Street London and formerly of Drewsborough House, Tuamgraney, Clare" will lie in repose at St Joseph’s Church in Tuamgraney on Friday 9 August from 5pm with prayers at 8pm.
Her funeral mass will take place on Saturday at 11am with burial afterwards in Holy Island.
The notice states that Edna O’Brien is survived by her sons Carlo Gebler and Marcus Gebler, in-laws, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren and is "sadly missed" by her nieces, nephews, extended family and "her large circle of friends and colleagues".
She was predeceased by her brother John, sisters Patricia and Eileen and her husband Ernest Gebler.
Books of condolence for Ms O’Brien have been opened online and also at Clare County Council headquarters in Ennis, as well as the public library in Scariff which was formally named the "Edna O’Brien Library" in May of this year.
Expressing his pride that "Edna lived among us and drew on her experiences of growing up in rural east Clare" to influence her writing, the Cathaoirleach of Clare County Council, Councillor Alan O’Callaghan, has invited people from all over Ireland to add their condolences as a way of marking her legacy as "a novelist who skillfully centred women’s experiences in her writing, earning her plaudits as a literary genius and one of the most influential figures in Irish literature."
