ENNIS author Sean O’Driscoll has been named on the shortlist for this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards. His book Heiress, Rebel, Vigilante, Bomber has been nominated in the Odgers Berndtson Non-fiction Book of the Year category.
His book tells the astonishing story of Rose Dugdale. She grew up in a Chelsea townhouse and on a Devon estate and was presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace as a debutante in 1958.
Rose trained at Oxford as an academic economist and had a love affair with a female professor. At thirty, she commenced giving her inheritance away to the poor and in 1972 she travelled to Ireland and joined the IRA.
She went on to become a committed terrorist, participating in a major art heist and a bombing raid on a police and army barracks; who kept a pregnancy secret for nine months in prison and gave birth there; and who ended up at the heart of the IRA’s bomb-making operation in the 1990s.
Other authors on the shortlist for the awards include Catherine Ryan Howard, Graham Norton, Sue Divin, Zak Moradi, Edel Coffey, Sally Rooney, Charlie Bird, Roisín O’Donnell, Darach Ó Scolaí, Maggie O’Farrell, John Creedon, Gina and Karol Daly, Eoin Colfer, Dr. Hazel Wallace, Kellie Harrington, Judge Gillian Hussey, Amy Huberman, Bono and more.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Dublin on November 23 hosted by RTE’s Miriam O’Callaghan, while a television special announcing ‘The An Post Irish Book Awards Book of the Year’ winner will broadcast on December 7.
The shortlist for the An Post Irish Book Awards 2022 features a diverse mix of exceptional writing from new and established writers across 18 categories, including Novel of the Year, Children, Cookbook, Crime Fiction, Popular Fiction, Non-fiction, Sports, Lifestyle, Short Story, Irish language, Poem, Newcomer, Teen and Young Adult, Irish Published and Biography.
The An Post Irish Book Awards celebrate and promote Irish writing to the widest range of readers possible. Each year it brings together a vast community passionate about books – readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – to recognise the very best of Irish writing talent and 2022 is no different.
To tie in with the announcement of the An Post Irish Book Awards shortlist, the public are now being asked to cast their votes online for the best books of the year on the An Post Irish Book Awards website www.anpostirishbookawards.ie.
All voters will be entered into a prize draw to win one of five €100 National Book Token vouchers. Voters may cast their votes until November 10.
The one-hour gtelevision special in December, hosted by Oliver Callan, will be broadcast on RTÉ One, exploring the six books and authors competing for the accolade of ‘An Post Irish Book Awards Book of the Year 2022’, culminating in the reveal of this year’s overall winner.
Brendan Corbett, Chairperson of the An Post Irish Book Awards, says, “This year’s shortlist, once again, displays the talent of Irish writers and exemplifies the diversity of Ireland’s literary culture. Each category is steeped with exceptional writing and truly deserving writers and authors, as well as publishers and booksellers.
The An Post Irish Book Awards is one of the major highlights of the literary calendar and I am delighted to see the continually growing interest in the initiative. I am looking forward to announcing the winners and celebrating on November 23 at our first in-person ceremony since 2019.”
David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, says, “For the first time in three years I look forward to a gathering in person in November to celebrate the best of Irish writing, publishing and bookselling at the An Post Irish Book Awards”