John McGahern, writer, born November 12 1934; died March 30 2006

John McGahern, who has died from cancer, aged 71, was arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett. Although he had many rivals in the field of short story writing (most notably William Trevor), his novels The Barracks (1963), The Dark (1965), The Leavetaking (1974), The Pornographer (1979), Amongst Women (1990), shortlisted for the Booker prize, and That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002) constitute a portrait of a society moving from insular repression (in the earlier writing) towards freedom and self-confidence (in the latter).
McGahern's second novel, "The Dark," a coming-of-age story published in 1965, was banned in Ireland and denounced from the pulpit as pornographic. McGahern was forced to quit his teaching job in a Catholic school and left Ireland. He resettled near his childhood home five years later and wrote his two most celebrated works, "Amongst Women" - nominated for Britain's Booker Prize in 1990 - and "That They May Face the Rising Sun" in 2002.
He received many honours, including the Irish-American Foundation award, the Irish Times/Aer Lingus fiction prize and an honorary doctorate from Trinity College Dublin, and was a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. In 2003, he donated his archive, including the manuscript of an unpublished novel, to University College Galway.
McGahern died in a Dublin hospital.