Boylan, Clare

(Irish, 1948– )

Boylan was born in Dublin, and worked as a journalist and magazine editor before becoming a full-time novelist and short story writer. Holy Pictures (1983) is a good introduction to her work, evoking childhood in 1920s Dublin with her characteristic blend of moving seriousness, humour, and quirky imagination. Beginning in the 1890s, Home Rule (1992) is the story of a working-class family caught up in the struggle for Irish independence. The book contains a vivid account of the Easter Rising of 1916 and the subsequent extended conflict with the British. In Room for a Single Lady (1997) an impoverished Dublin household begins admitting lodgers, becoming the scene of tensions between appearances of gentility and the harsh economic realities of the 1950s.

Edna O'Brien, Julia O'Faolain.

See IRELAND  DH