LIMERICK’S fist citizen, Mayor Jim Long, will travel to the Spanish city of Avila to attend a street naming ceremony in honour of the internationally acclaimed Limerick author, Kate O’Brien.
Mayor Long has been invited to the official naming by the Mayor of Avila.
Kate O’Brien lived for many years in Castile and as well as producing a number of best-selling books, i(including her debut novel, Without My Cloak), the Ante Room, The Land of Spices, That Lady, she wrote a study on St Teresa of Avila.
Speaking exclusively to the Limerick Post, the mayor, who attended a celebration of the writer, hosted in Avila two years ago, said he is delighted and honoured to attend the street-naming ceremony, which will take place on September 27.
“I am very pleased to learn that the street to be named after Kate O’Brien is one of the most prominent in the city,” he said.
“The ceremony is being hosted by the Spanish and Irish Embassies and as Mayor of Limerick, I am invited to officiate at the event, which I am hugely looking forward to, as it is a massive posthumous honour for Kate O’Brien who grew up on Mulgrave Street and went to school at Laurel Hill Convent, as well as for her descendants.
“As a young girl growing up she gleaned her first formative experiences as a writer in the making, from Limerick city and its people.
“The decision to honour the Limerick internationally acclaimed author, whose book, That Lady was made into a film in Hollywood, and who lived in and wrote about Castile, is wonderful and puts Limerick firmly on the map in Spain”.
The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick has a large collection of O’Brien’s personal writings.
