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With the passage of time those who met Brigid in person are dwindling in number, making it perhaps the harder to credit the vivid distinction between Brigid’s public and private personae. She was intensely shy face to face, sometimes reticent to the point of silence in social situations. However, she managed to gird herself when it came to garnering publicity that was indispensable to her, professionally. (That included being photographed, which she disliked.) Brigid cultivated her image as a fearless intellectual woman in her roles as writer, literary critic, and campaigner for various causes. She knew how to court controversy, but was meticulously courteous towards opponents of her views.

In our intimate, domestic setting my mother was gentle in manner and softly spoken. She was affectionate, patient, generous, markedly equable, and sympathetic, as well as utterly non-proselytising. I grew up knowing that Brigid’s work consumed her time. She wasn’t in any sense a conventional mother, and there were occasions in my youth when that frustrated me. As I matured, I began to value Brigid’s ever-candid explanations and originality of outlook. I was grateful she had nourished my independence of mind.