For the last ten years whereever I am or have been I have been receiving correspondence
about and from Nuala O'Faolain
who I read has passed away today at 68! She died of lung cancer. She was a journalist and writer and worked for RTE/BBC Ireland and had many friends and colleaegues at home and abroad.
She has stated openly before she died that she did not believe in an afterlife and suffered a little from her disease but had a great sense of fairplay and saw the suffering of others in Darfur and Auschwitz as greater suffering that she had personally experienced.
She was a friend and had a close lesbian relationship with Nell McCafferty who like Nuala O'Faolain is an Irish Journalist and an activist in rights for people. She wrote her memoirs and her work had proved a great success.
Nuala O'Faolain never married had no children and is survived by her family. O'Faolain will be cremated in Dublin, Ireland after Catholic Mass soon and her friends and family will attend this service.
She was a fond reader and enjoyed Marcel Proust and also lectured at UCD Ireland in the specialist subject of Literature. Oddly enough thats my specialism so thus the link between me and this great lady of letters but where we divert is I .. am linked with English As a Foreign Language and Lit! an odd coupling I guess for someone of the Diplomatic Strain of being The Spy Team ! I guess! Thanks AP for the blog .. keep on blogging.