Maeve Binchy

ARTS

UCD Alumni Award Winner 2006

Creativity: It’s in our DNA
The imagination and talent of our graduates make us what we are. Their extraordinary view of the world changes ours every day.

Maeve Binchy one of Ireland’s best loved writers completed a BA in 1959 and a Higher Diploma in Education at UCD before working as a teacher. She went on to write for The Irish Times and was appointed women’s editor in 1968.

In 2006, Maeve was awarded the UCD Foundation Day Medal in recognition for her great achievement, enormous skill and outstanding contribution to continuing the great Irish tradition of storytelling. In her books Maeve explored the depths of the human personality and the complexities of human life, with gentleness and humour but also with acute observation.

Her achievement as a writer is immense, she was the doyenne of the wave of Irish female popular fiction authors who followed in her wake. Her books have been translated into 30 languages, and worldwide sales of her books stand at over 40 million copies. Starting with Light a Penny Candle in 1982, and continuing with Echoes, The Lilac Bus, Circle of Friends, the Glass Lake, Tara Road, Nights of Rain and Stars and Whitethorn Woods, many of them are now hugely successful films.

Maeve passed away in July 2012 following a short illness - UCD continues to honour her memory through the Maeve Binchy Travel Award and with events like the Remembering Maeve event at the UCD Festival in 2016 attended by over 700 friends and fans, demonstrating her lasting legacy.