Ann Brady (née McGill;New Hibernia Review, vol. 21, no. 3, Autumn 2017, "No Way Out" of Ireland: Frances Molloy's ''No Mate for the Magpie'' and the Picaresque Novel, Jennifer M. Jeffers, p. 66 wrote as Frances Molloy) (12 January 1947 – 28 March 1991), was a novelist and short story writer from Northern Ireland.

Early life and education

Born in 1947 in

Dungiven Dungiven () is a small town, townland and civil parish in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It is near the main A6 Belfast to Derry road, which bypasses the town. It lies where the rivers Roe, Owenreagh and Owenbeg meet at the foot of the B ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, Ann McGill left school when she was just fifteen. She got a job working in a factory but left to become a nun. On later leaving the convent, she moved to

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

where she married Gerard Brady. They had two children. Adopting the pseudonym of "Frances Molloy" in her writing career, her biggest work was ''No Mate for the Magpie'' (1985). Although not a direct autobiography, it was based on Molloy's own life and experiences of growing up in Northern Ireland. The story focuses on Ann Elizabeth McClone, and is narrated by her in a Derry dialect. In 1971 Molloy and her husband moved back to Northern Ireland for two years, later settling at

Lancaster, Lancashire Lancaster (, ) is a city and the county town of Lancashire, England, standing on the River Lune. Its population of 52,234 compares with one of 138,375 in the wider City of Lancaster local government district. The House of Lancaster was a bran ...

. She died of a stroke on 28 March 1991. Over the course of her career, Molloy wrote a play with Ruth Hooley and

Nell McCafferty Nell McCafferty (born 28 March 1944) is an Irish journalist, playwright, civil rights campaigner and feminist. She has written for ''The Irish Press'', ''The Irish Times'', '' Sunday Tribune'', ''Hot Press'' and ''The Village Voice''. Early l ...

, and contributed short stories to various British magazines.

Bibliography

* ''No Mate for the Magpie'' (1985) * ''The Last Thing'' * ''An Irish Fairy Tale'' ( 1985) * ''Women are the Scourge of the Earth'' ( 1989)

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Molloy, Frances 1947 births 1991 deaths 20th-century Irish women writers 20th-century British women writers