About Catherine de Courcy

Experience

Catherine de Courcy grew up in Dublin, studied history and politics at University College Dublin, and completed the post-graduate diploma in librarianship at the same university.  Her 23-year career took her from the National Gallery of Ireland library to the University of Papua New Guinea special collections and finally to the State Library of Victoria Australian collections.  Her subject for her Master of Arts degree from the University of Melbourne was on the history of Melbourne Zoo.  In 2003 she moved back to Dublin after 18 years abroad and became a full time writer. 

Research and the ability to draw a story together are the unifying threads in Catherine’s diverse output.  Her writing career started in the National Gallery of Ireland when she came across unknown facts about the foundation of the Gallery.  She was commissioned to write a book as part of the Gallery’s lively publication programme.  Since then she has been invited to create books on a wide range of subjects, many of them illustrated.  Her breadth of knowledge and ease with delivering public presentations or appearing on broadcast media makes her an engaging speaker.  

Catherine’s novel, Montségur: a novel was a departure. It started with the intention of creating a non-fiction work based on her deep interest in the thirteenth century Cathars of southern France.  However she was drawn into the landscape around Montségur where an extraordinary story began to reveal itself. It became impossible to write the work as non-fiction and after six years of research and developing new skills, she published a novel.  This work together with her memoir about the life and death of her husband bring a new dimension to her oeuvre.