The Ireland Funds has announced the recipients of its two 2026 literary awards, celebrating both the achievement and the future of Irish writing as the organisation marks 50 years of philanthropy.
The awards were presented during The Ireland Funds Worldwide Conference in Dublin.
Acclaimed novelist Maggie O’Farrell has received The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award, one of Ireland’s longest established literary honours. It was presented by renowned writer and The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Awardee 2022, Joseph O’Connor.
Belfast poet Zara Meadows has been named the inaugural recipient of The Ireland Funds Loretta Brennan Glucksman Literary Award, a new honour for emerging writers launched to mark the 50th anniversary of The Ireland Funds. It was presented by the acclaimed author and The Ireland Funds AWB Literary Awardee 2011, Colum McCann. Each award carries a €25,000 bursary.
“In our 50th anniversary year, it is a particular joy to celebrate the past, present and future of Irish writing in a single week,” said Caitríona Fottrell, President and CEO of The Ireland Funds.
Colum McCann; Zara Meadows, The inaugural Ireland Funds Loretta Brennan Glucksman Literary Awardee; and Loretta Brennan Glucksman. (Credit: Aengus McMahon)
“Maggie O’Farrell is one of the great literary voices to have come from the island of Ireland, and we are honoured to recognise her remarkable body of work. At the same time, the inaugural Loretta Brennan Glucksman Literary Award allows us to invest in the future by celebrating an exceptional emerging talent in Zara Meadows. Together, these awards capture exactly what The Ireland Funds has stood for over five decades, honouring achievement while nurturing the next generation.”
“I am deeply honoured to receive The Ireland Funds AWB Vincent Literary Award, made all the more meaningful by the extraordinary writers who have received it before me,” said Maggie O’Farrell.
“The Ireland Funds has done so much to champion Irish writing around the world, and to be recognised in this 50th anniversary year is a privilege I will treasure.”
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“It is a real - and surreal - joy that my name now occupies a space alongside former winners of literary awards granted by The Ireland Funds, writers who sustain my practice of and passion for writing,” said Zara Meadows.
“What is paramount among my hopes for this award is that it will inspire and support a community of writers in a climate in which the imagination is contested regularly, and from many angles. It is thus an even greater joy to imagine the names that will follow mine, the future recipients of this award, writers whose work is emerging currently and who will be permitted to flourish in what is one of the greatest gifts conceivable: time spent making sense of, and giving shape to, one’s own, singular, imagination.”
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