Award-winning writer and former Derry resident Jennifer Johnston dies

Award-winning Irish novelist and playwright Jennifer Johnston has died aged 95.

The celebrated author, who wrote dozens of novels and plays, was born in Dublin in 1930 and in the 1970s moved to Derry, which became her home for much of her adult life.

A child of the playwright Denis Johnston and actor and producer Shelah Richards, her first novel, The Captains and the Kings, was published in 1972 and How Many Miles to Babylon? two years later.

In 2012, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Irish Book Awards and was one of the writers nominated in 2014 for the position of first Irish Laureate for Fiction.

She was a much loved and celebrated figure in Irish literature, known for exploring themes like Anglo-Irish identity and the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Her novel Shadows on Our Skin was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1977.

The book, which was set in Derry in the 1970s, followed Joe Logan navigating teenage life against a backdrop of bombs and bullets.

Ms Johnston had been diagnosed with dementia and died on Tuesday at a nursing home in Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin.

Paying tribute, the Republic's Minister for Arts, Media, Communications, Culture and Sport Patrick O’Donovan expressed his sadness at the news of her death.

Minister O’Donovan said: “I was saddened to learn of the passing of Jennifer Johnston, one of Ireland’s most celebrated authors. From the very beginning of her literary career, when “The Captains and the Kings” was awarded the Author’s Club First Novel Award in 1972, she has been rightly acclaimed among the best novelists in the world.

“Winner of the Whitbread Book Award for “The Old Jest”, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize for “Shadows on our Skin”, Jennifer was also an accomplished playwright, attaining a Giles Cooper Award for her radio play “O Ananias, Azarias and Misael”. She was honoured with the Irish Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 for her contribution to the Irish literary landscape.

“Many Irish people of my generation will remember “How Many Miles to Babylon” from our schooldays, and its examination of how war breaks apart the class structure and strengthens interpersonal bonds.

“I wish to express my deepest condolences Jennifer’s family, to her friends, and to her legion of loyal readers. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam.”