An Post Irish Book Awards 2025

Blog by: Úna Nic Cárthaigh

The taxi strikes didn’t deter the large crowd who attended the An Post Irish Book Awards at the Convention Centre in Dublin last Thursday 27th November. The famous green carpet drew them into the foyer where cameras, presenters and journalists waited in anticipation with their microphones to speak to the book community. The nominees and attendees were in high spirits as they made their way into the main room where a drinks reception awaited them. 

The night started on a high note when the Laureate for Irish Fiction, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, presented the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award to former president Michael D. Higgins in recognition of all he has done for literature in Ireland. He said that writing is an expression of our humanity and we must question if it is ever suppressed. A man who showed true humanity throughout his life was Manchán Magan, who was awarded the next award of the night. His book ‘Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)’ (Gill Books) won the category Best Irish-Published Book of the Year. Accepting the award on his behalf, his wife Aisling Rogerson said it was a kick ‘in the tóin’ for her to learn Irish as she couldn’t accept the award in Manchán’s native language. Many shed a tear when she described him as a keyholder who has left the door open for us to see the possibilities in life. 

Irish was interwoven through the whole night with nearly every winner giving thanks as Gaeilge. Father-daughter duo John and Kathi Burke won the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year (Senior) for their book Animalopedia (Gill Books) and John gave a rousing speech on the beauty of the language especially in describing the animals that feature in their book, with him listing the ialtóg, ialtóg uisce, gráinneog and madra rua. 

While Sadhbh Devlin didn’t win the award for her book An Fia sa Choill (Futa Fata), the nomination was such a huge achievement in itself as she made history having the first Irish-language book to be nominated outside of the Irish category. The nomination garnered huge publicity and interest in the weeks leading up to the awards and I hope that Sadhbh has paved the way for more Irish-language books to be nominated in other categories in the future. 

The highlight of the night for the Irish-language book community was the awarding of the Gradam Love Leabhar Gaeilge Leabhar Ficsin Gaeilge na Bliana and it was Darach Ó Scolaí, author and founder of publishing house Leabhar Breac, who was the winner on the night for his hugely popular book Bódléar. Television and radio presenter Sinéad Ní Uallacháin, who also did the voiceover for the awards on the night, presented Darach with the newly-designed trophy. Darach showed that there is no end to his writing talent as he read out two verses about Bódléar that he wrote on the train from Galway. In the verses he said that Bódléar is delighted with Catherine being nominated and will be trying to get into the Áras himself – I’m sure Bódléar would be particularly delighted with this win! 

Talking about the current state of Irish literature, Éilís Ní Dhuibhne says that Irish fiction is going from strength to strength with more being published than ever before and the quality of writing being more accessible and enjoyable. As a result, she hopes this means that more people will read Irish books. It was so uplifting to see the interest in, and love for Irish at the An Post Irish Book Awards and I hope that this increased interest in the language will be reflected in an increased interest in reading Irish-language books too. 

A special programme of the awards night will be broadcast on RTÉ One on the 11 December.