While, for obvious reasons, the glitz and glamour may have been missing from this year’s An Post Irish Book Award announcements, it’s unlikely that the thrill was in any way dampened for the four Trinity alumni and one current student who scored prizes this evening.
First to collect her award among the Trinity cohort was Louise O’Neill, who won Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year for her intoxicating thriller After the Silence. Upon accepting the award, O’Neill remarked that she was “genuinely quite shocked” and “really honoured” to have won. She said that all of the books in her category were “absolutely phenomenal” and that she believes “Ireland has really become quite famous for the quality of crime fiction that it is producing”.
Other Trinity graduates to win awards were the late journalist and news presenter Keelin Shanley and the poet Linda McKenna. Shanley was recognised by the RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners’ Choice Award for her autobiography, A Light that Never Goes Out, which tells the story of her journalism career and personal battle against cancer. Accepting on Shanley’s behalf was her husband Conor Ferguson, who remarked that “Keelin would have been so happy and honoured to win this award”.
Later in the ceremony, McKenna snatched The Listowel Writers’ Week Irish Poem of the Year award for “In The Museum of Misremembered Things”. McKenna said that the win was “hugely unexpected”. The poem is available in her full-length anthology by the same name, published by Doire Press.
Immunologist, biochemist and Trinity professor Luke O’Neill was also among the winners. His book Never Mind the B#ll*cks, Here’s the Science fended off a field packed with memoirs to claim Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book Of The Year. No doubt this was partly due to its heightened relevance in 2020, as it tackles the challenges posed by pandemics and vaccines in great detail, alongside other issues. Upon accepting the award, O’Neill himself jokily remarked that, “this is the year for science – if I hadn’t won it would have been a scandal!”
One current Trinity student will also be celebrating this evening. Sinéad Burke, who is completing a PhD in human rights education, and is already famous for her work promoting inclusivity in fashion, won the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior) for Break the Mould, which was illustrated by co-winner Natalie Byrne. Burke said the book was “written to give people hope” and with the aim of “making the world a safe place for people to just be themselves”.
In total, former and current Trinity students and staff brought home five of the 16 prizes. Other winners included Graham Norton, Donal Ryan and Doireann Ní Ghríofa. Disappointingly however, celebrations will be limited to a quiet glass of champagne or self-congratulatory take-away this year, most likely followed by a mention in a publicity-minded tweet from the Provost.
