Dervla Murphy (28 November 1931 – 22 May 2022) was an Irish touring cyclist and author of adventure travel books, writing for more than 50 years.

"[3] Murphy attended secondary school at the Ursuline Convent in Waterford but left at age 14 to take care of her disabled mother.

Her mother's death freed Murphy from her domestic duties and allowed her to make the extended trip for which she had long planned: The hardships and poverty of my youth had been a good apprenticeship for this form of travel.

Taking a pistol along with other equipment aboard her Armstrong Cadet men's bicycle (named Rozinante in allusion to Don Quixote's steed, and always known as Roz), she passed through Europe during one of the worst winters in years.

She received her worst injury of the journey on a bus in Afghanistan, when a rifle butt hit her and fractured three ribs; however, this only delayed her for a short while.

She wrote appreciatively about the landscape and people of Afghanistan, calling herself "Afghanatical" and claiming that the Afghan "is a man after my own heart".

[6] On returning to Europe, Murphy took part in a fundraising campaign for Save the Children,[3] and in 1965 she worked with another group of Tibetan refugees in Pokhara, Nepal (described in The Waiting Land).

She travelled to Ethiopia and walked with a pack mule from Asmara to Addis Ababa, confronted by Kalashnikov-carrying soldiers on the way.

And because children pay little attention to racial or cultural differences, junior companions rapidly demolish barriers of shyness or apprehension often raised when foreigners unexpectedly approach a remote village.

[10] In 1978, Murphy wrote A Place Apart about her travels in Northern Ireland and encounters with members of the Protestant and Catholic religious communities.

[11] In 1985 she lived for several months in Bradford and Birmingham, talking to members of the Asian, Afro-Caribbean and White communities and witnessing first-hand one of the Handsworth riots (described in Tales From Two Cities).

[12] In 1992 she cycled from Kenya to Zimbabwe, where she witnessed the impact of AIDS; when describing this journey in The Ukimwi Road, she criticised the role of non-governmental organisations in sub-Saharan Africa.

[13] Her other writings include discussions about the aftermath of apartheid (South from the Limpopo)[14] and the Rwandan genocide (Visiting Rwanda),[15] the displacement of tribal peoples (One Foot in Laos),[16] and post-war reconstruction of the Balkans (Through the Embers of Chaos).

[21] Over the summer of 2011, Murphy spent a month in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, where she met liberals and Islamists, Hamas and Fatah supporters.

In 1968 she gave birth to her only child, Rachel, fathered by Irish Times journalist Terence de Vere White.

[23] Her decision to bring up her daughter alone was described as "a brave choice in 1960s Ireland" by The Sunday Business Post, although she said she felt safe from criticism because she was in her thirties and was financially and professionally secure.

During the conversation Murphy "claim[ed] to have no time to dwell on the past because she finds so much in current events to worry about, following the news on the BBC World Service radio and Al Jazeera on her computer because she has no desire for — indeed, has never owned — a television."