She worked as a writer, language teacher, editor and translator and lived in France, Italy, and the United States.
As Julia Martines, she translated Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati and Piero Chiara's A Man of Parts.
O'Faolain writes about women's roles in society, power, faith and sexuality, and about Irish dilemmas of female identity.
With her husband, O'Faolain edited Not in God's Image: Women in History from the Greeks to the Victorians (1973), and has just produced a new novel, Adam Gould, which is set in a lunatic asylum.
Although it's her first book in 17 years, it explores familiar themes: clerical intrigue, family history and farce, with madness added to the mix.