‘Extraordinary’ writer honoured after cancer death

TRIBUTES poured in over the weekend to the writer and broadcaster Nuala Ó Faoláin, who died on Saturday morning three months after being diagnosed with cancer.

The 68-year-old author captured headlines last month when she revealed in an emotional radio interview with Marian Finucane that she only had a short time to live after tests in the US last February confirmed she had cancer, which began in her lungs and had spread to her brain and liver.

Ms Ó Faoláin was admitted to Blackrock Hospice in Dublin on Friday and died there peacefully shortly after midnight the following day, surrounded by her family and close friends, including her recent partner, John Low-Beer.

Friends of the writer said she had been heartened by the public’s reaction to her moving interview with Ms Finucane.

“I don’t want more time. As soon as I heard I was going to die, the goodness went from life,” she said at the time.

Ms Finucane, who said at the weekend that she had spoken briefly with Ms Ó Faoláin on Friday, described her friend as “an extraordinary woman”, who was “ruthlessly truthful and honest”.

The writer’s former partner of 15 years, Nell McCafferty, expressed gratitude that Nuala had been “spared by a swift death”.

Ms McCafferty said she had last been in contact with her friend by email on Wednesday but had no sense that her death was so imminent.

“We split, but never separated,” said Ms McCafferty in a rare public comment about their relationship.

Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism Martin Cullen expressed his regret at the writer’s death: “Her searing honesty, particularly in recent weeks in relation to her illness, had a profound impact on many people.

“Her intimate memoir Are You Somebody? caught the imagination of the public not just in Ireland but around the world,” he said.

Arts Council chairwoman Olive Braiden said Ms Ó Faoláin had made a significant contribution to Irish creative writing and would be mourned by the arts community.

“While Nuala was best known for her journalism, she was also a wonderful teacher and lecturer. At her evening lectures in UCD, she inspired in hundreds of students a lifelong love of literature and creative writing,” said Ms Braiden.

Ms Ó Faoláin rose to international prominence for two volumes of memoirs, Are You Somebody? and Almost There, as well as her novel, My Dream of You. She was already a household name in Ireland over many decades through her career as a TV producer, columnist, writer and commentator.

Ms Ó Faoláin’s removal will take place this evening to the Church of the Visitation, Fairview, at 5.30pm. The funeral mass will be held in the same church at 12 noon tomorrow, after which her body will be cremated at Glasnevin Crematorium.