Silone, Darina née Laracy (1917-2003), journalist and translator

Elizabeth Darina Laracy was born on 30 March 1917 in Rathgar, Dublin as one of four daughters of Patrick Joseph Laracy and Mary Cecilia née King. She studied history and political science at University College Dublin, graduating with a BA 1937 and an MA in 1939. In 1940, she moved to Sorbonne to study for her doctorate on the strength of a scholarship. In 1940, she moved to Italy, eventually settling in Rome to work as a correspondent to Herald Tribune and the International News Service. A vocal anti-fascist, she was forced to flee Italy to Switzerland in 1941. Here, she met the politician and prominent anti-fascist novelist Secondino Tranquilli, better known by his pseudonym Ignazio Silone (1900-1978), who was also in exile. The couple returned to Rome in October 1944 to work against fascism and married two months later. Following the death of her husband in 1978, Darina finished his last, uncompleted novel, Severina, which was published in 1981. Fluent in several languages, she translated her husband's works and became an important reference point for scholars of Ignazio Silone's life and works. Darina Silone died in Rome on 25 July 2003.