June Levine R.I.P.

I was sad to hear of the sudden death yesterday of Dublin writer June Levine. June was a novelist, journalist and feminist and she wrote Sisters, about the feminist movement in Ireland; A Season of Weddings (novel) and Lyn, with prostitute Lyn Madden. The latter was one of those books that we whispered about in school: 'Have you read it?'

I have huge admiration for the women who went on the 'Contraceptive Train' to Northern Ireland in 1971 (when I was an oblivious one-year-old) to bring back condoms for the women of the Republic, where they were banned. They had guts and grit. Rest in peace, June. Like that other great Dublin woman and writer who passed away this year, Nuala Ó Faoláin, you will be missed.