A night to remember – the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2010

The gala dinner to announce the winners of the Irish Book Awards has become one of the major events in the Irish literary calendar. The ceremony on November 25th was attended by over fifty Irish authors and many more from the publishing industry and the media. Almost 30,000 public votes were cast to help decide the winners. Maeve Binchy was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Irish literature by President McAleese. She joins a distinguished roll-call of John McGahern, William Trevor and Edna O’Brien, the previous recipients.

Emma Donoghue’s Room, inspired by the Josef Fritzl case, won the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year Award.
Neil Richardson’s book on Irishmen who fought in the first World War, A Coward if I Return, a Hero if I Fall, took the Argosy Irish Non-Fiction award.
Johnny Giles’s autobiography, A Football Man, chronicling his time with some of England’s biggest soccer clubs won the Energise Sport Irish Sports Book of the Year prize.
The book by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Paul Howard), The Oh My God Delusion, took top honours in the Eason’s Irish Popular Fiction category,
Gene Kerrigan’s Dark Times in the City won the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Award.
The Best Newcomer of the Year Award went to RTÉ broadcaster and Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy’s JFK in Ireland: Four Days that Changed a President.
Good Mood Food by Donal Skehan was the winner of the IES Best Irish-Published Book of the Year award.
Cork hurler Donal Óg Cusack’s frank autobiography Come What May, ghostwritten by Irish Times sports writer Tom Humphries, won RTÉ Radio 1’s John Murray Show listeners’ choice award. In the best children’s book junior category, Niamh Sharkey’s On the Road with Mavis and Marge took the top prize, while in the senior category, Derek Landy’s popular Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil won.