John McGahern (72) died suddenly today in Dublin's Mater hospital.
The writer John McGahern in the studio. Photo: Matt Kavanagh
The award-winning writer - who was born in Dublin in 1934 but was brought up in Cootehall, Co Roscommon - is famed for chronicling rural life in Ireland.
His most famous novel, Amongst Women, won The Irish Times/Aer Lingus Literary Award in 1991 and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was also adapted for television by the BBC in 1998.
His first novel, The Dark, was banned in the Republic in 1965 for its unflinching portrayal of adolescence. After its publication he was dismissed from his job as a national school teacher in Clontarf in Dublin.
For more than 30 years, he has lived in Co Leitrim with his wife.
Irish Timesliterary correspondent Eileen Battersby said McGahern's relevance as a writer cannot be underestimated.
"His books chronicle Irish society and provide an important social history." She described him as hugely sophisticated Irish countryman who was "never embittered".
She added he was an Irish writer who never ran away and his writing was informed by a personal courage.
President McAleese said: "With the passing of John McGahern, Ireland has lost an outstanding literary talent."
Mrs McAleese said: "John made an enormous contribution to our self-understanding as a people. His work often pitched him into a place of some discomfort, not only for himself but for the reader also.
"His was a challenging voice yet not without compassion, a voice that spoke of his great and honest love for his country and its people," she said.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he had learned with deep regret of the death of John McGahern.
Mr Ahern said: "John was one of Ireland's finest writers ever. His beautiful use of language in telling and retelling the stories of his time and place, are the enduring testimony of his life and his talent."
After death of his mother in 1945 John McGahern was brought up by his father, which was to have a profound effect on his writing.
He was educated at the Presentation Brothers College in Carrick-on-Shannon and later trained to be a teacher at St Patrick's College in Dublin's Drumcondra. In 1957 he graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
In 1962, he won the AE Memorial Award for an extract from his first novel, The Barracks, which was published in 1963. The novel won the McCauley Fellowship Award, which allowed McGahern a year off to live on the continent.
His next novel, The Dark, was banned by the Irish Censorship Board; McGahern was subsequently sacked from his teaching post on the orders of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid and left Ireland for 10 years.
It was only in 1974, that his next novel, The Leavetaking, was published. He returned to Ireland in 1975 and bought a small farm in Co Leitrim where he has lived since.
Following the success of Amongst Womanthere was a long wait for his next novel, That They May Face the Rising Sun, which was published in 2001 - and many believe is his best.
His recent book Memoir- detailing his childhood in Co Roscommon - was published last year.