John McGahern

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006) was an Irish writer and novelist. He is regarded as one of the most important writers of the latter half of the twentieth century.

Known for the detailed dissection of Irish life found in works such as The Barracks, The Dark and Amongst Women, he was hailed by The Observer as "the greatest living Irish novelist" and in its obituary The Guardian described him as "arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett". Born in Knockanroe about half a mile from Ballinamore, County Leitrim, John McGahern was the eldest child of seven. He was raised alongside his six young siblings on a small farm in Knockanroe. McGahern's mother ran the farm (with some local help) whilst maintaining a job as a primary school teacher in the local school. His father, a Garda sergeant, lived in the Garda barracks at Cootehall in County Roscommon, distant from his family. McGahern's mother died of cancer in 1944, when John was 10, resulting in the uprooting of the McGahern children to their new home with their father in the Cootehall Garda barracks.In the years following his mother's death, McGahern completed his primary schooling in the local primary school, and ultimately won a scholarship to the Presentation Brothers secondary school in Carrick-on-Shannon. Having travelled daily to complete his second-level education, McGahern continued to accumulate academic accolades by winning the county scholarship in his Leaving Certificate enabling him to continue his education to third level.McGahern was offered a place at St Patrick's College of Education in Drumcondra where he trained to be a teacher. Upon graduation he began his career as a primary school teacher at Scoil Eoin Báiste (Belgrove) primary school in Clontarf where, for a period, he taught the academic Declan Kiberd. He returned to third-level education in University College Dublin where he graduated in 1957. He was dismissed from Scoil Eoin Báiste on the order of the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid.He was first published by the London literary and arts review, X, which published in 1961 an extract from his first – abandoned – novel, The End or Beginning of Love.

McGahern married his first wife, Finnish-born Annikki Laaksi, in 1965 and in the same year published his second novel, The Dark which was banned by the Irish Censorship Board for its alleged pornographic content along with its implied sexual abuse by the protagonist's father. Due to the controversy which was stirred by the book's publication McGahern was dismissed from his teaching post and forced to move to England where he worked in a variety of jobs, including on building sites, before returning to Ireland to live and work on a small farm near Fenagh in County Leitrim.McGahern divorced in 1969, and married Madeline Green in 1973.He died from cancer in the Mater Hospital in Dublin on 30 March 2006, aged 71. He is buried in St Patrick's Church, Aughawillan, alongside his mother.