Film | Legacy in the Library: Celebrating Edna O’Brien 1930-2024

The National Library of Ireland presents ‘Legacy in the Library’, a short film remembering Irish writer, Edna O’Brien. The film premiered on YouTube on Thursday 31st July 2025 at 3pm GMT+1.

About Legacy in the Library: Celebrating Edna O’Brien 1930-2024:
Legacy in the Library is a new annual series at the National Library of Ireland. It pays tribute to Irish literary figures who have died in the preceding year, focusing on their holdings in the National Library’s collections. Their families are central to these tributes.

This specially curated film marks Edna O’Brien’s exceptional life, with a mixture of conversation, recordings, photographs, letters, ephemera and literary criticism. Filming took place on February 4th, 2025, in front of a small audience in the National Library’s iconic Prints & Drawings Reading Room. Edna was remembered by her sons, Carlo and Sasha Gébler, in conversation with the Director of the National Library of Ireland, Dr Audrey Whitty and Dr Sinéad McCoole, NLI Head of Exhibitions, Learning and Programming. The film reflects on Edna’s later work, focusing on the holdings of the National Library which have recently been made available to scholars. This film also incorporates archival film of Edna O’Brien discussing her papers held in the National Library, which was directed by NLI Head of Communications Liz Coffey at the time of the papers’ acquisition.

The film Legacy in the Library: Celebrating Edna O’Brien 1930-2024 enables us to share this reflection with National Library of Ireland audiences near and far.