Tributes to ‘national treasure’ Binchy

The worlds of arts, politics and journalism have led tributes to Irish novelist Maeve Binchy, who has died at the age of 72.

The former journalist and best-selling author died peacefully in hospital on Monday with her husband, children’s writer Gordon Snell, by her side.

Binchy wrote 16 novels and sold more than 40m books worldwide during her career.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny offered her family his deepest sympathies, on behalf of the Government and the Irish people, who he said had lost a national treasure.

“Across Ireland and the world people are mourning and celebrating Maeve Binchy,” he said.

“She is a huge loss wherever stories of love, hope, generosity and possibility are read and cherished.”

President Michael D Higgins described the acclaimed novelist as a great storyteller, who had engaged and inspired millions the world over.

“In recent years she showed great courage and thankfully never lost her self-deprecating humour, honesty and remarkable integrity as an artist and human being,” he said.

Former British politician and author Jeffrey Archer was a close friend of Binchy for more than 30 years.

He said she had the great God-given Irish gift of telling stories. “She had that great gift of making you feel life was worth living. A very, very special person,” he said.

Several of Binchy’s works were adapted for screen, including Circle Of Friends, The Lilac Bus and Tara Road.

Oscar-winning actress Brenda Fricker, starred in a number of the productions.

“She was charming, intelligent, warm, generous in her time, with her effort, with her work,” she said of Binchy. “I just had the greatest of respect for her because she suffered badly from arthritis, and she had a lot of pain, and she never complained, you know.”

Tributes also flooded in from the National Union of Journalist and RTÉ, where Binchy had worked on a range of programmes throughout her career.

Born in Dalkey, Co Dublin, Binchy studied at University College Dublin before starting her career as a teacher.

She went on to become a journalist at The Irish Times. She moved to England, where she became London editor with the paper to be with her husband, a former BBC presenter.

The couple later moved back to Dalkey, living near the house where she grew up with her parents.

Binchy’s popular early collections of short stories were based in London and Dublin. Her first novel, Light A Penny Candle, became a best-seller in 1982.

The author also appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

While Binchy announced her retirement in 2000, she continued writing. Her last novel, Minding Frankie, was published in 2010 — the same year she received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Book Awards.

In a personal message on her website when Minding Frankie was released in the US, she wrote: “My health isn’t so good these days and I can’t travel around to meet people the way I used to. But I’m always delighted to hear from readers, even if it takes me a while to reply.”