John McGahern

John McGahern was born in Dublin and brought up in Co. Leitrim and Co. Roscommon. He trained as a teacher at St. Patrick's College, Dublin, and worked as a primary school teacher until the controversy over his allegedly pornographic novel, The Dark, published in 1965, forced him to resign. Once hailed as Ireland's greatest living novelist by The Observer, McGahern was the author of six highly acclaimed novels and four collections of short stories. He received numerous awards and honours, including the American-Irish Award, the Prix Écureuil de littérature étrangère, the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and a South Bank Award for Literature. Amongst Women, which won both the GPA and the Irish Times Award, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990 and made into a four-part BBC television series. McGahern's work has appeared in anthologies and has been translated into many languages. John McGahern died in Dublin aged 71 on 30 March, 2006.