Tributes have been paid to author Nuala O'Faolain who has died aged 68.
Broadcaster Marian Finucane, a close friend of the writer, said that O'Faolain had crammed in a gruelling three-month schedule of overseas travel shortly before she died.
In April, the author had revealed in a radio interview with Ms Finucane that she had been diagnosed with metastatic cancer and admitted she had shunned chemotherapy in order to savour her final days.
In the emotional interview which was broadcast on April 12th, she said: "I was supposed to start chemotherapy. I was supposed to start 18 weeks of it, six sessions of it. After three sessions they would know if it was working.
"But it reduced me to such feelings of impotence and wretchedness and sourness with life and fear, that I decided against it."
Paying tribute today, Ms Finucane said: "She was a pretty extraordinary woman. She was ruthlessly truthful and honest.
"She was a wonderful communicator. She had a wonderful ability with language to cut right to the point she wanted to make. She had a wonderful way way of articulating things with intellect and emotion in a way that generated a response in others. She could get to people in a special way."
Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism Martin Cullen expressed his regret at O'Faolain's death and paid tribute to her "searing honesty" about her illness which he said had had a profound impact on many people.
"With her trademark frankness, she spoke courageously from the heart and wrote with luminous clarity, said Mr Cullen.
"A shining academic, she was a powerful presence on the literary scene. Her intimate memoir
Are you Somebody?caught the imagination of the public not just in Ireland but around the world".
Additional reporting: PA
