Edna O’Brien burial place to be Holy Island on Lough Derg

Former monastic island on the western, Co Clare shore of the lake is still used as a graveyard

Edna O’Brien’s nephew Michael Blake said the writer wanted to return to Ireland for “her final resting place”. Photograph: Alan Betson
Edna O’Brien’s nephew Michael Blake said the writer wanted to return to Ireland for “her final resting place”. Photograph: Alan Betson

Tim O’Brien

Novelist Enda O’Brien is to be buried on Holy Island on Lough Derg, her family has said.

Ms O’Brien who was originally from the Tuamgraney area near Scarriff in Co Clare rose to fame when she wrote the Country Girls, a trilogy the first book of which was published in 1960. The trilogy was subsequently banned by the censor.

Speaking on the RTÉ programme Drivetime, Ms O’Brien’s nephew Michael Blake said the writer wanted to return to Ireland for “her final resting place”.

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He said she wished for a “service in the Church in Tuamgraney where she was christened and had communion”.

She is “going to be buried on Holy Island”, he said.

Funeral arrangements for the writer are still being formulated Mr Blake said.

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Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien is an Irish Times journalist