Kathleen MacMahon is an Irish writer and former radio and television journalist who worked with Ireland's national broadcaster,

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

She is the author of three novels and numerous short stories.

Childhood and family

Born in

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

, MacMahon is the granddaughter of writer

Mary Lavin Mary Josephine Lavin (10 June 1912 – 25 March 1996) wrote short stories and novels. An Irishwoman, she is now regarded as a pioneer in the field of women's writing. The well-known Irish writer Lord Dunsany mentored Lavin after her father appr ...

and the niece of Caroline Walsh, the literary editor of ''

The Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

''. Her father is Des MacMahon and her mother was Valdi Walsh, who died in November 2010. MacMahon has a brother and sister, Kevin and Meg. MacMahon attended

Mount Anville Secondary School Mount Anville Secondary School is a Roman Catholic, voluntary all-girls post-primary school in Goatstown, a suburb of Dublin, in Ireland (state), Ireland. It was originally an all-boarding school, but due to decreased demand for such schools has ...

in Dublin after her family returned to Ireland from

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. She went on to take degrees at University College Dublin and Cambridge University.

Career

She worked for

as a radio and television journalist for 15 years before getting her first book published. While working for ''

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is the breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 in Ireland and is noted as that country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 07.00 and 09.00 and alternate items are normall ...

'', MacMahon won a National Media Award for News and Current Affairs. Five of her years in radio were spent reporting for the ''

RTÉ News at One ''RTÉ News at One'' is a news and current affairs programme broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. It airs Monday to Friday for 45 minutes at 1:00pm. The programme is presented by Bryan Dobson. An extended news bulletin takes up the first few minutes of ...

'' programme. She made the news herself when the publisher

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

paid £600,000 for the English rights of her first two books. MacMahon's first book, ''This Is How It Ends'' (2012), was translated into 20 languages and shortlisted for a number of awards including the Kerry Group Irish Book of the Year Award, two Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards and the RTÉ ''

Liveline ''Liveline'' is an Irish radio interview and phone-in chat show broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 each weekday afternoon between 13.45 and 15.00. The programme, which is currently presented by Joe Duffy and known for its slogan "Talk to Joe", seeks the ...

'' listener's poll for Book of the Year 2012. It was also a

Richard and Judy Richard and Judy is the name informally given to Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan, a British married couple who are both television presenters and columnists. They presented the daytime television programme '' This Morning'' from 1988 until 2 ...

choice in the UK. Her second book, ''The Long Hot Summer'' (2015), was also a bestseller. Her third novel ''Nothing But Blue Sky'' was published in 2020 by the Sandycove Press imprint of Penguin Books. In March 2021, it was announced that ''Nothing But Blue Sky'' had been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

Personal life

MacMahon lives in Dublin, with her husband Mark and their twin daughters.

Bibliography

*''This Is How It Ends'' (2012) *''The Long Hot Summer'' (2015) *''Nothing But Blue Sky'' (2020)

References and sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacMahon, Kathleen Living people Irish women journalists Writers from Dublin (city) RTÉ people 21st-century Irish women writers 21st-century Irish novelists Year of birth missing (living people)