Jennifer Johnston (born 12 January 1930) is an Irish novelist.
The Old Jest, a novel about the Irish War of Independence, was later made into a film called The Dawning, starring Anthony Hopkins, produced by Sarah Lawson and directed by Robert Knights.
[2] A cousin of actress and film star Geraldine Fitzgerald, via Fitzgerald's mother, Edith (née Richards), Jennifer Johnston was educated at Trinity College Dublin, graduating in 1965 with a degree in ancient and modern literature.
[6][7] Johnston was born into the Church of Ireland and many of her novels deal with the fading of the Protestant Anglo-Irish ascendancy in the 20th century.
She married a fellow student at Trinity College, Ian Smyth, in 1951.