Ireland makes history with four authors on the 2023 Booker Prize longlist

Ireland's rich literary heritage continues to shine as the 2023 Booker Prize longlist is announced, featuring four of Ireland’s most important contemporary authors.

Old God’s Time, by Sebastian Barry, How to Build a Boat, by Elaine Feeney, Prophet Song, by Paul Lynch, and The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray, join nine other books in the running for the literary award.

The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the literary world, celebrates outstanding works of fiction from around the globe. The 2023 longlist makes Ireland the country that, with 37 writers, has produced the most nominees in the history of the prize.

Ireland’s deep literary tradition dates back to early tales of mythical heroes such as Cú Chulainn, and continues right up to prize-winning modern authors such as Anne Enright, Anna Burns and Colm Tóibín.

Early Irish literature is thought to be the oldest vernacular literature in western Europe, and examples of Ogham inscriptions on stones in the counties of Kerry, Cork and Waterford can still be seen. A visit to the island, whether to an Atlantic outpost or bustling city, offers the chance to connect with plays, poetry and prose, as well as experience the landscape, culture and history that inspired the greats.

Dublin is famous for its vibrant street life and quirky characters, and it has been home to some exceptional writers over the years. In this UNESCO City of Literature, you can almost hear the words of James Joyce, Flann O’Brien and Sally Rooney echo through the streets. The city has produced three of Ireland’s four Nobel Prize winners for literature, and it continues to be a hotbed of creativity.

Pull up a bar stool in one of the city’s famous “literary” pubs such as Davy Byrne’s – immortalised in Joyce’s Ulysses – or join the Dublin Literary Pub Crawl. Explore the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) on St Stephen’s Green, and visit the award-winning WB Yeats exhibition at the National Library, described by the New York Times as “dazzling”.

Speaking to The Irish Times about why there were so many Irish nominees, James Shapiro, one of the judges of the Booker Prize, said: “When you have people like Anne Enright, who is a professor of fiction at University College Dublin, training the next generation and writing great novels herself, it’s really not surprising that an island which has invested in literary culture is seeing the fruits of that in the Booker longlist.”

The shortlist of six books will follow on 21 September. The winner of the £50,000 prize will be announced at an event in London on 26 November.

www.ireland.com