User:EEHalli/Eileen O'Brien (journalist)

Eileen Mary O'Brien (1925-1986) was an Irish journalist and editor. She was the Belfast editor of the Irish Press and then the Irish language editor and columnist for the Irish Times.

Early Life
Eileen O'Brien was born on 23 January 1925 in Dublin. Her father was Liam O'Brien, a professor of romance languages and her mother was Helen O'Brien, a suffragette. Eileen went to University College, Galway at 16 to study Irish, French and Latin. After graduation, she got a job as a journalist on the Connaught Tribune.

Career
O'Brien moved to England to take a job at the Yorkshire Post, before getting a role at the Irish News Agency. She reported from Dublin, Belfast and London, reporting on the 1950s IRA border campaign.

In 1965, O'Brien moved to the Irish Times. She was the first woman employed by the paper to write about politics and social affairs rather than fashion or cookery. As well as reporting she wrote the weekly 'Irishwoman's diary' column under the pen name 'Candida'. She also started a weekly news feature in Irish, ‘Tuarascáil’, and became the paper's Irish editor. She used her 'A Social Sort of Column' in the Irish Times to write about social affairs. Her report on the conditions in the Benburb Street tenements in 1970 was cited by the Catholic Standard in their call for better social housing in Ireland.

Death
O'Brien died on 1 January 1986.