This time it’s for the Irish Book of the Decade, and it’s to be decided through an online vote. (Link now updated, folks: should work, finally). There’s a strange mix of apples and oranges in there, so it’s hard to know how we can compare The Speckled People by Hugo Hamilton with Lessons in Heartbreak by Cathy Kelly or The Pope’s Children by David McWilliams. Still, it’s our task as readers to judge like with unlike in this instance. So what gets your vote for this Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards’ prize? Find the shortlist of fifty after the fold . . .

The Story of Lucy Gault   by William Trevor
Star of the Sea   by Joseph O’Connor
Winterwood   by Patrick McCabe
Paula Spencer   by Roddy Doyle
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas   by John Boyne
Tenderwire   by Claire Kilroy
The Secret Scripture   by Sebastian Barry
Heart and Soul   by Maeve Binchy
Brooklyn   by Colm Tóibín
Molly Fox’s Birthday   by Deirdre Madden
Stepping Stones   by Dennis O’Driscoll and Seamus Heaney
Let The Great World Spin   by Colm McCann
The Builders   by Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan
This Charming Man   by Marian Keyes
The Speckled People   by Hugo Hamilton
The New Policeman   by Kate Thompson
Memoir   by John McGahern
A Long Long Way   by Sebastian Barry
The Pope’s Children   by David McWilliams
Back From The Brink   by Paul McGrath
The Gathering   by Anne Enright
Walk the Blue Fields   by Claire Keegan
Should Have Got Off at Sydney Parade   by Ross O’Carroll Kelly
The Truth Commissioner   by David Parks
The Parish   by Alice Taylor
Bog Child   by Siobhan Dowd
Lessons in Heartbreak   by Cathy Kelly
Forgive and Forget   by Patricia Scanlan
The Lovers   by John Connolly
It’s a Long Way from Penny Apples   by Bill Cullen
The Stolen Village   by Des Ekin
Artemis Fowl   by Eoin Colfer
Yours, Faithfully   by Sheila O’Flanagan
The Sea   by John Banville
With My Lazy Eye   by Julia Kelly
Connemara: Listening to the Wind   by Tim Robinson
In the Woods   by Tana French
Tatty   by Christine Dwyer Hickey
A Secret History of the IRA   by Ed Moloney
The Master   by Colm Tóibín
There Are Little Kingdoms   by Kevin Barry
In the Forest   by Edna O’Brien
Keane   by Roy Keane
Havoc in Its Third Year   by Ronan Bennett
Judging Dev   by Diarmaid Ferriter
Netherland   by Joseph O’Neill
That They May Face The Rising Sun   by John McGahern
PS I Love You   by Cecelia Ahern
Skulduggery Pleasant   by Derek Landy
Foolish Mortals   by Jennifer Johnston