Deirdre Purcell (born

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

1945) is an Irish author. Purcell is a former

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the p ...

actress, who has played as Christine opposite

Donal McCann Donal McCann (7 May 1943 – 17 July 1999) was an Irish stage, film, and television actor best known for his roles in the works of Brian Friel and for his lead role in John Huston's last film, '' The Dead''. In 2020, he was listed as number ...

in '' Drama at Inish'', Miss Frost in the stage adaptation of ''

The Ginger Man ''The Ginger Man'' is a novel, first published in Paris in 1955, by J. P. Donleavy. The story is set in Dublin, Ireland, in post-war 1947. Upon its publication, it was banned both in Ireland and the United States of America by reason of obsce ...

'', and Pegeen Mike in ''

The Playboy of the Western World ''The Playboy of the Western World'' is a three-act play written by Irish playwright John Millington Synge and first performed at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, on 26 January 1907. It is set in Michael James Flaherty's public house in County Mayo (o ...

''. Purcell is also a former TV and press journalist. She has been awarded The Benson & Hedges and Cross awards for journalism. She lived in

Beara Peninsula Beara ( ga, Béarra) or the Beara Peninsula is a peninsula on the south-west coast of Ireland, bounded between the Kenmare "river" (actually a bay) to the north side and Bantry Bay to the south. It contains two mountain ranges running down it ...

in West Cork. Since October 2009, she has presented All About the Music on

RTÉ Lyric FM RTÉ Lyric FM (stylised as RTÉ lyric fm) is an Irish classical-music and arts radio station, owned and operated by RTÉ. The station, which is based in Limerick, was launched in 1999 and is available on FM throughout Ireland (in some areas ...

. She is a former presenter of "It Says in the Papers" on

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is the breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland and is noted as that country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 07.00 and 09.00 and alternate items are normall ...

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 ( ga, RTÉ Raidió 1) is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for th ...

Biography

Deirdre Purcell was born and brought up in Dublin. She was educated at Gortnor Abbey in County Mayo. She has published twelve critically acclaimed novels, most recently Pearl and The Winter Gathering, all of which have been bestsellers in Ireland. She lives in County Meath with her husband. She has two adult sons. Purcell was appointed to the board of the Central Bank of Ireland in 2003 and was serving in 2008 when the Irish banking system collapsed.

Selected works

Novels

* ''A Place of Stones'' (1991) * ''That Childhood Country'' (1992) * ''Falling for a Dancer'' (1993) * ''Ashes of Roses'' (1994) * ''Francey'' (1995) * ''Roses After Rain'' (1996) * ''Sky'' (1996) * ''Love Like Hate Adore'' (1997) * ''Billy and Jesus Are Off to Barcelona'' (1999) * ''Entertaining Ambrose'' (2001) * ''Has Anyone Here Seen Larry?'' (2002) * ''Marble Gardens'' (2002) * ''Last Summer in Arcadia'' (2003) * ''Children of Eve'' (2005) * ''Tell Me Your Secret'' (2006) * ''The secret'' (2006) * ''Somewhere in Between'' (2007) * ''Jesus and Billy Are Off to Barcelona'' (2008) * ''Days We Remember'' (2008)

Series contributed to

* ''Finbar's Hotel'' (1999) (with

Maeve Binchy Anne Maeve Binchy Snell (28 May 1939Born 1939 as per biography, ''Maeve Binchy'' by Piers Dudgeon, Thomas Dunne Books 2013; (hardcover), pp. 4, 280, 302; (ebook) – 30 July 2012) was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, colum ...

Dermot Bolger Dermot Bolger (born 1959) is an Irish novelist, playwright, poet and editor from Dublin, Ireland. Born in the Finglas suburb of Dublin in 1959, his older sister is the writer June Considine. Bolger's novels include ''Night Shift'' (1982), ''Th ...

, Clare Boylan,

Emma Donoghue Emma Donoghue (born 24 October 1969) is an Irish-Canadian playwright, literary historian, novelist, and screenwriter. Her 2010 novel ''Room'' was a finalist for the Booker Prize and an international best-seller. Donoghue's 1995 novel '' Hood'' ...

, Anne Haverty, Kate O'Riordan) * ''Ladies' Night at Finbar's Hotel'' (2000) (with Maeve Binchy, Dermot Bolger, Clare Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anne Haverty, Kate O'Riordan)

Non-fiction

* ''Diamonds and Holes in My Shoes'' (2006) * ''Follow Me Down to Dublin'' (2007)http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/p/deirdre-purcell/ Reference for the entire bibliography. * ''Aengus Finucane: A Life'' (2015)

References

1945 births Living people Irish women radio presenters RTÉ lyric fm presenters 20th-century Irish novelists 21st-century Irish novelists 20th-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish women writers People educated at Gortnor Abbey {{Ireland-writer-stub