A DISPUTE has broken out between Mary O’Rourke and the O’Brien Press over whether the former Fianna Fail TD will write an autobiography for the publisher.
The O’Brien Press claims O’Rourke signed a contract with it around 2002, but she never delivered a manuscript as promised. O’Rourke says she cannot remember signing a book deal. Rather than writing an autobiography, she is considering granting interviews to the author of a forthcoming book about her life that Blackwater Press, another Dublin firm, is planning.
“The O’Brien Press can’t force me to write a book,” the former minister said. “I did meet with them back in 2002. I certainly did talk with them on the understanding that I would be choosing them if I were to write a book. But I decided that I wouldn’t write one while I was in public life, so I told them that, and that’s where the matter rested. I didn’t attach a whole lot of importance to it.”
O’Rourke pointed out that she received no advance payment from O’Brien, and had not asked for one.
The dispute arose after O’Rourke mentioned in a radio interview that she planned to write a book after failing to be re-elected to the Dail in last month’s general election.
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Her comments prompted a flurry of offers from Irish publishers, much to the annoyance of the O’Brien Press. Last week, Michael O’Brien, its founder and publisher, contacted a number of competitors to advise them against signing up O’Rourke. The former deputy leader of Fianna Fail was taken aback at the move.
“This only became an issue after I prattled on about writing my memoirs during a radio interview, but I haven’t written a word so far,” said O’Rourke. “Michael O’Brien called me to ask if other publishers had contacted me after my prattle on the radio. I said they had.
“I haven’t heard anything else from him since, but I’m astonished that he contacted other publishers about this. If Michael O’Brien has a contract, let him produce it. He still cannot force me to write a book.”
O’Rourke’s decision to cooperate with the author of a biography is likely to annoy the O’Brien Press further. Most publishers insert an anti-competitive clause into contracts that prohibit authors from co-operating with other books about them. O’Rourke believes she is entitled to give interviews to whomever she wants and no one can stop her.
“My mind is pretty fertile and I have things to say. I would have lots of diaries, mementos and memories of my life and I would be willing to share them,” she said. “I would not be at all averse to giving interviews about my life and times.”
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John O’Connor, owner of Blackwater Press, confirmed he planned to publish a book on O’Rourke for the Christmas market. He said the as-yet untitled work would be written by a female journalist, whom he declined to name.
“I have known Mary O’Rourke for years and I expect she will give us some important interviews. There is nothing to stop Mary co-operating with our book,” said O’Connor, who published For the Record, the autobiography of the late Brian Lenihan, O’Rourke’s brother and a former tanaiste.
This weekend O’Brien insisted O’Rourke had entered into a contract with his company for her memoirs. “The O’Brien Press has a valid publishing agreement with Mary O’Rourke, signed by her and me. Mary spent half a day with some of our editorial team and myself, creatively building the content and chapter structure which now forms part of our contract with her,” he said. “We are on good terms with her and look forward to working with her to produce a significant biography.”
In a career spanning three decades, O’Rourke served under three taoisigh, including Charles Haughey and Bertie Ahern. She is an aunt of Brian Lenihan, the former finance minister, and of Conor Lenihan, a junior minister who has also lost his Dail seat.
When Ahern was elected taoiseach in 1997, he warned government advisers not to write books about his administration after they left office. Cabinet ministers were included in the ban, and agreed to it without dissent at a government meeting in July 1997. However, Ahern went on to write his autobiography immediately after leaving office in 2008.
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After O’Rourke lost her seat in 2002, she said she would not write her memoirs, in accordance with Ahern’s ban. “I have no real desire to do so,” she said.