Author Kevin Barry is awarded the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature 2007

Posted on: 01 October 2007

The Rooney  Prize  for  Irish  Literature for 2007 was awarded to Kevin Barry  author of  There are Little Kingdoms a collection of short stories published in Dublin by Stinging Fly. The announcement was made at a reception sponsored by AIB in the Provost’s House, Trinity College Dublin  on October 10 last.

Kevin Barry  was born in Limerick in 1969 and  has been publishing stories in periodicals and anthologies over the past six years. His stories have appeared to critical acclaim in the Phoenix Best Irish Stories 2001, in The Dublin Review and in The Stinging Fly Magazine.  

Previous winners of the  Rooney Prize include Bernard Farrell, Neil Jordan, Frank McGuinness, Deirdre Madden and Anne Enright.

The selection committee this year comprised:
Terence Brown, critic and author (Professor of Anglo-Irish literature, TCD);
Gerald Dawe poet and critic (Director, The Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, TCD);
Dr Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, novelist and dramatist (National Library of Ireland)
Carlo Gébler, novelist and dramatist;
Dr Riana O’Dwyer critic and editor (Department of English, National University of Ireland at Galway)

In his citation Professor Brown spoke of how Kevin Barry in the twenty-first century is revitalising the tradition of short-story writing for which this country is so renowned. He admired, as did the awarding committee, the energy and lyricism of the very promising new author’s work.

This is the first year that the  Rooney is being administered by The Oscar Wilde Centre for Irish Writing, School of English, Trinity College Dublin, from where, with Dr Rooney’s kind support, it will be administered in the future.

About  the Rooney Prize:
The Rooney Prize is awarded through the generosity of Dr Daniel M. Rooney of the Pitsburgh Steelers in the U.S.A. It was established in 1975 and is awarded annually to a published Irish writer whose work the selection committee considers shows outstanding promise.