Ellís Dillon

Ellís Dillon is one of the most widely acclaimed Galway authors of recent years. In her lifetime she wrote and published over fifty books and was translated into 14 languages. She is perhaps best known as an author of children's literature, and a full 38 of her 50 books were of that category. However, later in life she entertained much success writing novels and detective stories. Her epic 1973 historical novel, Across the Bitter Sea, which chronicled the road to Irish independence, was a stunning critical and commercial success.

Dillon was born in Galway City in 1920; her first memories were of the fear and bloodshed that typified the Irish War of Independence. The great drama that played before her childhood eyes affected her for the rest of her life. In her autobiography, Inside Ireland, she wrote of the time soldiers made her 4 year old sister lead them to her mother to kill her. Luckily her mother survived the incident by pleading with the armed men. The raw emotion of Dillon's childhood clearly found its home in her passion for writing.

Ellís Dillon died in 1994, at the age of 74. In addition to her masterpiece, Across the Bitter Sea, some of Dillon’s most famous works include The San Sebastion, The Bitter Glass, A Family of Foxes and The Interloper. Her great literary achievements, along with her active role in the Arts Council, the Irish Writers' Union and Aosdána, the State academy of writers, artists and composers, led NUI Cork to grant Ellís Dillon an honorary doctorate in 1992.

Today she continues to be honoured by the Ellís Dillon Award, given to authors for excellence in children’s writing.

Jeremy M. Usher
November 2000