Biography
Geraldine O'Neill grew up in Cleland, North Lanarkshire in Scotland, born to an Irish mother and Scottish father. She was the second of six children. She was educated at St Mary's Primary School in Cleland and then at Holy Cross High School, Hamilton.
While training to be a teacher in Newcastle-upon-Tyne she met her future husband. They married in 1977 and had two children while living in Scotland. During the eighties the family moved to her husband's home town of Stockport for a number of years. They moved to live in Ireland in 1991 and settled in County Offaly, where her mother, Bridget O'Neill, was born and raised. It was then that O'Neill began to write seriously. O'Neill worked for a number of years as a school teacher in Daingean National school. O'Neill has published 15 novels and numerous short stories and some poems. Her work is sold internationally and has been translated into a number of languages. Her historical fiction books often feature places she lived in such as County Offaly, Stockport and Lanarkshire in Scotland. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
O'Neill had polio as a child which left her with a weakened arm. In 2002 she was diagnosed with Post Polio syndrome; she lives a full and active life. She is a member of the support group Polio Survivors Ireland. [7] [3] [6]
Dingle is a town in County Kerry, Ireland. The only town on the Dingle Peninsula, it sits on the Atlantic coast, about 50 kilometres (30 mi) southwest of Tralee and 71 kilometres (40 mi) northwest of Killarney. Principal industries in the town are tourism, fishing and agriculture: Dingle Mart serves the surrounding countryside.
Motherwell is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarkshire, Motherwell is the headquarters for North Lanarkshire Council. Geographically the River Clyde separates Motherwell from Hamilton to the west whereas the South Calder Water separates Motherwell from Carfin to the north-east and New Stevenston and Bellshill towards the north.
Tullamore is the county town of County Offaly in Ireland. It is on the Grand Canal, in the middle of the county, and is the fourth most populous town in the Midlands Region, with 15,598 inhabitants at the 2022 census.
Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia in Hamlet. She won the Best Actress Award at The Reims International Television Festival in 1999 for her role of Lady Dona St Columb in Frenchman's Creek. Fitzgerald has appeared in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre, and in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Since 2007, Fitzgerald has appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC television series Waking the Dead and played the role of Selyse Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.
Cleland is a village near Motherwell and Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, Scotland,. As of 2018, it has a population of about 3,000. The village has a strong coal mining heritage, and is a typical example of a working class village in North Lanarkshire and the Glasgow area. Due to its location, despite being at the heart of North Lanarkshire, the village is isolated, geographically and culturally, from surrounding towns such as Motherwell, Shotts and Wishaw.
Geraldine Mary Fitzgerald was an Irish stage, film, and television actress. She was an Academy Award and Tony Award nominee, and an Emmy Award winner. She was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame and, in 2020, was listed at number 30 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Daingean, formerly Philipstown, named after King Philip II of Spain, is a small town in east County Offaly, Ireland. It is situated midway between the towns of Tullamore and Edenderry on the R402 regional road. The town of Daingean had a population, as of the 2022 census, of 1,223. It is the principal town of the Daingean Catholic Parish. The other main poles of this parish are Ballycommon, Kilclonfert and Cappincur.
Eilís DillonFRSL was an Irish author of 50 books. Her work has been translated into 14 languages.
Penelope Halsall was a prolific English writer of over 200 romance novels. She started writing regency romances as Caroline Courtney, and wrote contemporary romances as Penny Jordan and historical romances as Annie Groves. She also wrote novels as Melinda Wright and Lydia Hitchcock. Her books have sold over 70 million copies worldwide and have been translated into many languages.
Michelle O'Neill is an Irish politician who has been the First Minister of Northern Ireland since February 2024 and Vice President of Sinn Féin since 2018. She has also been the MLA for Mid Ulster in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2007. O'Neill was previously deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2020 to 2022. O'Neill served on the Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council from 2005 to 2011.
Ballinagar is a village in County Offaly, Ireland. It lies on the R402 regional road, roughly midway between Daingean and Tullamore.
Marita Conlon-McKenna is an Irish author of children's books and adult fiction. She is best known for her Famine-era historical children's book Under the Hawthorn Tree, the first book of the Children of the Famine trilogy, which was published in 1990 and achieved immediate success. Praised for its child-accessible yet honest depiction of the Great Famine, Under the Hawthorn Tree has been translated into over a dozen languages and is taught in classrooms worldwide. Conlon-McKenna went on to be a prolific writer and has published over 20 books for both young readers and adults. Her debut adult novel Magdalen was published in 1999.
The National Museum of Ireland – Country Life is located in Turlough village, 8 km (5.0 mi) northeast of Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland. Established in 2001, the museum is part of the National Museum of Ireland and is the only national museum outside Dublin. The museum exhibits the way of life of rural Irish people between 1850 and 1950, and is in the grounds of Turlough Park House. There are displays about the home, the natural environment, trades and crafts, communities, and working on the land and on water.
Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, also known as Eilis Almquist and Elizabeth O'Hara, is an Irish novelist and short story writer who writes both in Irish and English. She has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, and is a recipient of the Irish PEN Award.
Jennifer Johnston is an Irish novelist. She has won a number of awards, including the Whitbread Book Award for The Old Jest in 1979 and a Lifetime Achievement from the Irish Book Awards (2012). The Old Jest, a novel about the Irish War of Independence, was later made into a film called The Dawning, starring Anthony Hopkins, produced by Sarah Lawson and directed by Robert Knights.
Gerard Mannix Flynn is an Irish Independent politician who has served as a Dublin City Councillor since May 2009.
The Stockport Air Raid Shelters are a system of almost 1 mile (1.6 km) of underground air-raid shelters dug under Stockport, 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Manchester, during World War II to protect local inhabitants during air raids.
St. Conleth's Reformatory School was a reformatory in Daingean, County Offaly which operated from 1870 - 1973. It was run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
Dalziel High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Louise O'Neill is an Irish author who writes primarily for young adults. She was born in 1985 and grew up in Clonakilty, in West Cork, Ireland.
