Fintan O’Toole shortlisted for Orwell Prize for Journalism

Irish Times journalist Fintan O'Toole has been shortlisted for the 2017 Orwell Prize for Journalism for his writing about the Brexit referendum and its consequences.

The prize is awarded annually by the Orwell Foundation for work that comes closest to George Orwell's ambition "to make political writing into an art".

The foundation uses Orwell’s work to “celebrate honest writing and reporting, to uncover hidden lives, to confront uncomfortable truths – and, in doing so, to promote Orwell’s values of integrity, decency and fidelity to truth”.

Previous winners of the prize include the journalists Patrick Cockburn, Peter Hitchens, Polly Toynbee and Timothy Garton Ash.

O'Toole's nomination is for articles in The Irish Times, the Guardian and the Observer newspapers, including "Brexit fantasy is about to come crashing down" and "Brexit and the politics of the fake orgasm".

In April, O’Toole received a European Press Prize for his articles on Brexit, becoming the first Irish recipient of the prestigious award. The judges hailed “his perspective, his acute observation – and the pungent writing style that make these ideas live”.

Ruth Dudley Edwards is on the Orwell Prize for Books shortlist for her book The Seven, an exploration of the men who signed the Proclamation of the Irish Republic on Easter Sunday, 1916.