| Collection Description | Edna O’Brien was born in Tuamgraney, Co Clare on 15th December 1930 to Michael O’Brien
and Lena O’Brien (neé Cleary). She attended the National School in Scariff and the Convent
of Mercy at Loughrea, before moving to Dublin to study pharmacy. In 1954 O’Brien married
the Czech/Irish writer Ernest Gébler and the couple moved to London, where they had two
sons, Carlo and Sasha. The marriage dissolved in the 1960s. Ernest Gébler died in 1997.
Edna O’Brien published her first novel, The Country Girls, in 1960. It met with much
criticism and was swiftly banned by the Irish Censorship Board for its perceived explicit
sexual content. Her following five books published during the 1960s met the same fate at
the hands of the Irish Censorship Board. O’Brien became a controversial figure within the
context of a conservative Catholic Ireland, a legacy that some would argue has impinged
upon the critical reception of her work long after the disappearance of such moral
indignation [UCD Special Collections]. |
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