Title
Portrait of Nuala O'Faolain, c.1970sDate2019
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensions
30 x 37.5 cm
Credit LinePresented, 2019
Object numberNGI.2019.236
DescriptionO'Faolain was born in 1940 in Clontarf, Dublin. Her father, known as 'TerryO' was a well-known Irish journalist, writing the 'Dubliners Diary' social column under the pen name Terry O'Sullivan for the Dublin Evening Press. She was educated at University College Dublin, the University of Hull, and Oxford University. She taught for a time at Morley College, London, and worked as a television producer for the BBC and RTE.O'Faolain's formative years coincided with the emergence of the women's movement, and her ability to expose misogyny in all its forms was formidable, forensic and unremitting. She became internationally well known for her two volumes of memoir, 'Are You Somebody?' and 'Almost There'; a novel, 'My Dream of You'; and a history with commentary, 'The Story of Chicago May'. The first three were all featured on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Here, she is pictured in a bar, holding her own amongst a group of men while playing dominos. This photograph was taken during the 1970s when she was working for the BBC in London (or possibly Oxford).
Exhibition HistoryNew Perspectives. Acquisitions 2011 - 2020, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 11 May - 2 August 2021