Literary Awards
Supporting arts and culture has been a core focus of The Ireland Funds’ work since our founding in 1976. Through our grantmaking, we aim to increase access to and participation in the arts, strengthen cultural institutions, and preserve Ireland’s rich cultural heritage.
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The AWB Vincent
Literary Award
For over five decades, The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award has been awarded annually to Irish writers of poetry, prose and drama. The award recognizes individuals whose lifetime contributions have given voice to Ireland’s past, present and future and enriched Ireland’s cultural heritage on the global stage.
The award is named in honor of A.W.B. Vincent or “Billy” as he was known to many. Billy was the Vice Chairman of The American Ireland Fund and former President & Chairman of its predecessor, The American Irish Foundation.
Since its inception, recipients of The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award have gone on to receive an array of prestigious honors, among them, the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Man Booker Prize, Academy Award and Tony Nominations, and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Thanks to the generosity of Maryon Davies Lewis, a €25,000 bursary accompanies this honor.
The Loretta Brennan Glucksman
Literary Award
To mark its 50th anniversary, The Ireland Funds has expanded the scale and scope of our commitment to Irish arts and culture by establishing a new literary award, dedicated to nurturing emerging Irish writers who have shown exceptional promise and potential.
The award is named in honor of Loretta Brennan Glucksman, one of The Ireland Funds’ greatest philanthropists and friends, and a true champion of the arts.
Thanks to the generosity of Ambassador Elizabeth Frawley Bagley and Chris McInerney, a €25,000 bursary accompanies this honor.
The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award Recipients
Austin Clarke
1972
Seamus Heaney
1973
Thomas Kilroy
1974
John Banville
1975
Dervla Murphy
1976
Aidan Higgins
1977
Paul Smith
1978
Mary Lavin
1979
Benedict Kiely
1980
Brian Friel
1981
Michael McLaverty
1982
Richard Murphy
1983
Thomas McCarthy
1984
John McGahern
1985
Joint: Seán Ó Faoláin & Hubert Butler
1986
Derek Mahon
1987
John B. Keane
1988
Seamus Deane
1989
Michael Hartnett
1990
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill
1991
Frank McGuinness
1992
Bryan McMahon
1993
Eavan Boland
1994
John Montague
1995
Michael Longley
1996
Sebastian Barry
1997
Medbh McGuckian
1998
Brendan Kennelly
1999
Edna O’Brien
2000
Tom MacIntyre
2001
Dermot Healy
2002
Marina Carr
2003
Paul Muldoon
2004
William Trevor
2005
Eugene McCabe
2006
David Park
2008
Colm Tóibín
2010
Colum McCann
2011
Seamus Heaney, Lifetime Achievement
2012
Roddy Doyle
2013
Leontia Flynn
2014
Fergal Keane
2015
Emma Donoghue
2016
Conor McPherson
2017
Anne Enright
2018
Lyra McKee, Posthumous
2019
Joseph O’Connor
2022
Edna O’Brien, Lifetime Achievement
2023
Fintan O’Toole
2024
Thomas McCarthy
AWB Vincent Recipient 1984
“I have always felt that the Award is an absolutely vital intervention in the continuing life of Irish writing. The Ireland Funds do enormous quiet good in this land all the time, but the Literary Award reminds the world of the clout of The Ireland Funds. It is visible action, and that raises everyone’s morale, not least the lucky author.”
Colum McCann
AWB Vincent Recipient 2011
“So it strikes me that it was very important for me to say that what you do matters, it truly truly matters, that your deeds are struck with an axe and that they give off sparks, you do not know where the sparks will land but they do in fact land. Mine is a pale imitation of having an axe, but like Seamus Heaney and all the other recipients of this great great award which is a great great honour I will go on digging for it and I take enormous pride in Irish literature, Irish storytelling and Irish people doing the sort of thing that you are doing tonight. I am humbled; I’m humbled to be here, I am truly humbled to be here and to be with friends.”
Joseph O’Connor
AWB Vincent Recipient 2022
“Forty years ago, at the age of 17, inspired by many of the great writers who have received this award, I began to write fiction and to dream I might one day have a novel published. To be now invited into a group that includes the lighthouses of my early teens is a humbling honour and a blessing. I am profoundly grateful to The Ireland Funds for this extraordinarily generous act of support and for all it has done, and continues to do, for the arts, culture, and education in Ireland.”
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