Sally Rooney

Orlaith Darling (University College Dublin)

Ed. by Eoghan Smith, Carlow College
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.4: Irish Writing and Culture, 400-present.
Vol. editors: Sorcha de Brún (University of Limerick), Anne Markey (Dublin City University), Ian Campbell Ross (Trinity College Dublin), Eoghan Smith (Carlow College), Sinéad Sturgeon (Queen's University Belfast)

Dates

Born 20 Feb 1991

Places

Active in Ireland, Republic of (Eire)

Activities

Primary

Writer / Author

Resources

Background

Sally Rooney is the author of poetry, short stories, essays, and fiction, best known for her four novels: Conversations with Friends (2017a); Normal People (2018a); Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021a); and Intermezzo (2024a). Her work has also been adapted for television: in 2020, the BBC/Hulu series Normal People, on which Rooney was consultant writer and executive producer; and, in 2022, Conversations with Friends.

A “younger millennial”, Rooney was born in 1991 in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, where she spent her formative years with parents, Kieran and Marie, an older brother, and a younger sister. It was, as she has noted in interview, in the family home that she first developed the Marxist political outlook for which both her literary work and cultural commentary have since become known (Collins 2018). Rooney moved to Dublin to...

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

3058 words

Citation: Darling, Orlaith. "Sally Rooney". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 19 August 2025 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=15281, accessed 21 August 2026.]