The shortlist for the 29th Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize, for works published in 2024 and 2025, has been announced.
The £7,500 (€8,600) prize was instituted in memory of the British ambassador to Ireland who was murdered by the IRA in 1976.
The shortlist
Shooting Crows: Mass Murder, State Collusion and Press Freedom by Trevor Birney (Merrion Press)
Ulster’s Lost Counties: Loyalism and Paramilitarism since 1920 by Edward Burke (Cambridge University Press)
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The Bureau by Eoin McNamee (Riverrun)
The Root of All Evil: the Irish Boundary Commission by Cormac Moore (Irish Academic Press)
For and Against a United Ireland by Sam McBride and Fintan O’Toole (Royal Irish Academy)
Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets by Clair Wills (Allen Lane)
Prof Roy Foster, speaking for his fellow judges, Catherine Heaney, Prof Ian McBride, Prof Paul Arthur, Susan McKay and Thomas Pakenham, said: “We have chosen a vivid and passionate investigation into the murky background of the horrifying Loughinisland murders of 1994; an original and fascinating portrait of politics and violence in the three Ulster counties excluded from Northern Ireland by partition; an incisive analysis of the Boundary Commission intended to rationalise and adapt that partition, and its failure; a searing novel about criminal life on the Irish Border, by a novelist who powerfully blends fact and fiction; a forensic and clear-sighted discussion of the possibilities, probabilities and implications of doing away with the Border; and a beautifully-written memoir of family concealments and disruptions that illuminates much about society in mid-20th century Ireland, and the oddly symbiotic relationship between Ireland and Britain.
“This year’s shortlist highlights the depth of analysis brought to bear on various aspects of recent Irish history by an impressive range of authoritative writers, all of whom powerfully contribute to understanding in the sense that this prize seeks to recognise.”
The judges added that they had chosen works that embodied the objectives of the prize, which are to promote and encourage peace and reconciliation in Ireland, a greater understanding between the peoples of Britain and Ireland, or closer co-operation between the partners of the European Community. These were the ideals that inspired Ewart-Biggs and to which his widow Jane subsequently dedicated herself. A special prize will also be awarded for a body of work reflecting these ideals.
The winner will be announced on Wednesday, March 18th at a reception in the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.
In 2024, the prize was won by Derry playwright and screenwriter Lisa McGee for the third series of her acclaimed Channel 4 television comedy-drama, Derry Girls.
