The death has occurred in Dublin of the writer Seán Mac Mathúna, aged 89.
A native of Co Kerry, he was among a small number of writers who won awards and recognition for works in both Irish and English.
His 1987 collection of short stories, The Atheist, was Ireland’s nomination for the European Literature Prize. He had two original collections in Irish, Ding (1983) and Banana (1999), which won the Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin award.
A selection of his stories in Irish is reprinted in Úlla (2007).
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His play The Winter Thief, a tragedy set in Kerry during the War of Independence, won the Bank of Ireland Award at Listowel Writers’ Week literary festival and had a successful run in the Abbey Theatre in 1991, with the same cast – Don Wycherley, Aisling O’Sullivan, Bosco Hogan, Macdara Ó Fatharta, Peadar Lamb and Mick Lally – performing a prize-winning Irish-language version, Gadaí Géar na Geamhoíche, on alternating nights. Following this he became a judge on behalf of The Irish Times for the Irish Literature Prize.
Mac Mathúna was also the author of a bestselling historical novel, Hula Hul (2007), a love story set in Kerry during the Civil War.
He his survived by his sons Mel and Fiach and daughter Sadhbh.
