Jennifer Johnston: A 'literary giant' and Dublin-born Derry girl

BBC News

01-03-2025

The award-winning Irish novelist and playwright Jennifer Johnston, who died aged 95 on Tuesday, was born in Dublin but adopted Londonderry as her home.The Booker-nominated author moved to Derry in the 1970s and would remain there for more than 40 years.She lived with her second husband David Gilliland in Brook Hall, an imposing 18th Century demesne on the Culmore Road, overlooking the River Foyle.Her eldest son, Patrick Smyth, told BBC News NI her life in Derry was a whole new chapter and she "embraced its cultural life".
Among her new friends were Brian and Anne Friel, John and Pat Hume, Denis Bradley - the former priest who acted as a secret "backchannel" between the IRA and the government - and "half the taxi drivers of the city", he said."She revelled in her work with the arts council and school and public readings, and took great pride in her visits to prisoners in the Maze."Her writing, notably Shadows on our Skin, reflected a deep commitment to cross-community reconciliation."Patrick said she passed on to her children a love of life, of curiosity, of fun, a need to challenge and a love of books."She once told an interviewer about her own childhood: 'We read real books, right from the age of four up to 17. We also read history books. But it always seemed to me that history books were written by people who were trying to explain some enormous mess that we'd all got into but were never going to be able to explain. Whereas novelists can explain things in their own way. That's why it's so important that children read.'"That is how we hope she will be remembered," he said.
House was a sanctuary
David Gilliland's son Philip said the couple entertained at Brook Hall."There was nearly always somebody else at the kitchen table," he said. "They sought out anybody who they thought was interesting and who thought their own thoughts; people from the literary world and not."He said that, when she married his father and moved to Derry she "made his home her home"."I would say it's where the bulk of her work was written. The house was something of a sanctuary from what was going on in the real world in Derry at that time," he added.Philip said Brook Hall lent itself to being both a tranquil study, and at other times - particularly holiday times - the "perfect place for large and lively gatherings of the two families".However, as Shadows on our Skins shows - she was "far from immune from what was going on in the real world"."Because she didn't drive, she struck up great relationships with Derry's taxi-men, who were universally kind to her."They will miss her, too, like the rest of us."
'Thoroughly involved'
Close friend Mary Murphy described her as having a deep love for the city and its people, being happy to call the place home for so long.She told BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show that an "evening with Jennifer would have you going from being stimulated intellectually and philosophically one minute and the next, you would be bent over laughing". Johnston was known for exploring themes like Anglo-Irish identity and the Troubles.Her novel Shadows on Our Skin - set in Derry in the 1970s - was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1977.It followed Joe Logan, who grew up in the Bogside, navigating teenage life against a backdrop of bombs and bullets and was later made into a film, with local boy Macrea Clarke as Joe.How Many Miles to Babylon?, the story of an unlikely friendship between two boys from different social backgrounds during World War One, remains a set text for English literature students.
Jennifer Prudence Johnston was born in 1930 and lived variously in Donnybrook - the family home - Paris, London, Derry and Dún Laoghaire.Her father was the famous playwright and war correspondent Denis Johnston and her mother was the acclaimed actress Shelah Richards.She met her first husband Ian Smyth, who was a fellow student at Trinity College Dublin in the 1940s, and they lived in London, where they had four children.Later, after her divorce, she married lawyer David Gilliland, with whom she lived in Derry, before eventually moving back to Dublin.
A big house and two massive dogs
BBC presenter Marie-Louise Kerr, who interviewed Johnston, had a memorable experience when she went down to meet her at Brook Hall in the 1990s. "This was all pre-mobile phones, so I arranged a time with her, and I drove down this extraordinary windy driveway to a house at the bottom which was overlooking the Foyle," Kerr said. "When I got there, all I could see were these two massive dogs - and I mean massive - I was so terrified. "I saw Jennifer come to the door and she shouted: 'They're fine, they're only babies - come in,' so I had to trust her. It was genuinely a trust walk, because they certainly didn't look like babies to me."
Kerr said Jennifer, despite being incredibly proud of her roots in Dublin, developed a deep love for her adopted home city. Kerr believes she wrote Shadows on Our Skin "for Derry". "Derry was her home for so many years and she wrote so many of her novels in her study overlooking the River Foyle. "It had a huge place in her imagination, as well as being her physical place."
'Led the way for many women'
Derry bookstore owner Jenni Doherty said Johnston was "a formidable spirit" and "led the way for many women in writing, in wit and worth"."She took no prisoners and was sharp and witty," she said.
Johnston's signature proudly adorns the Legenderry writers' chair, which bears the names of many celebrated prestigious authors who have visited Jenni's bookshop.
'Commemoration of Jennifer's life'
Jennifer Johnston is survived by her children Patrick, Sarah, Lucy and Malachi, her grandchildren Sam Daniels and Attikos Lemos Smyth, her brother Micheal and half-brother Rory.A private family cremation will take place on Saturday and there will be a public commemoration of her life at 14:00 in the public theatre (exam hall) of Trinity College Dublin.