IRISH-AMERICAN novelist JP Donleavy has died at his Co Westmeath home at the age of 91.
Born in New York, he was best known for his 1955 debut The Ginger Man, which was banned in the Republic and the US for obscenity.
The novel, viewed as one of the best of the 20th century, sold more than 45 million copies.
It tells the story of a young American studying at Trinity College Dublin after the Second World War.
Donleavy, a son of Irish immigrant parents, served in the US Navy before moving to Ireland to study at Trinity.
He spent time in London and the Isle of Man but moved back to the Republic in 1969 and lived on a farm near Mullingar.
A father-of-two, Donleavy wrote several novels and novellas, non-fiction books, plays and an autobiography.
He died on Monday.
