Writer Deirdre Madden inducted into Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame

Antrim-born novelist Deirdre Madden has been inducted into the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Dublin marking the 43rd year of the awards celebrating new Irish writing.

Brendan McLoughlin, from Dublin, was named Hennessy New Irish Writer 2014 for his first fiction publication, Last Breath .

McLoughlin, who is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Queen’s University Belfast, explores in his writing themes of isolation, the individual and the role of the family in modern Ireland. He is working on a novel.

In the emerging fiction category, Sean Kenny took the award for his story Is this Australia?

Kenny won the Over the Edge new writer of the year award in 2012 and was shortlisted for the Swift Satire Award in 2011. His fiction has been published in the Irish Times, Crannog, Southword and Wordlegs.

Scottish poet David Cameron was presented with the emerging poetry award at the ceremony in the Westin Hotel for his works Night Singing and B&B.

Cameron's poems have appeared the London Magazine and Stand and he recently published a short novel, The Ghost of Alice Fields .

A new short film category was added to the Hennessy awards this year and the prize was taken by Madeleine D’Arcy for her short film starring Frank Kelly.

Dog Pound , which will be available on YouTube from tomorrow, April 9th, is described as "essentially a monologue filmed in a Dublin pub that captures that unique relationship between a patron and his barman".

It has also been nominated in the Galway Film Fleadh.

Market development manager for Moët Hennessy, Caroline Sleiman, said the company had always been dedicated to the support and advocacy of Irish culture.

“Over the past 43 years, the awards have grown nationally and internationally. As Hennessy gets ready to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year globally, the Hennessy Literary Awards will also celebrate a great milestone.”

Since 2003, one distinguished writer each year has been inducted into the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame.

Deirdre Madden tonight joined Dermot Healy, John Boyne, Sebastian Barry, Dermot Bolger, Frank McGuinness, Anne Enright, Hugo Hamilton and Neil Jordan in the list.

Madden said: “As a recipient of a Hennessy Literary Award in 1980, it is such a great honour for me to now be inducted into the Hennessy Literary Awards Hall of Fame.

“I am joining the ranks of some of the greatest Irish writers of our time; authors who have meant a great deal to me over the course of my own life.”

The judges of the awards were critic Ciaran Carty, poet Theo Dorgan and literary agent Peter Straus.

Over the years, the judging panels have also included Rupert Thomson, Giles Foden, Fay Weldon, Ian McEwan, John Boyne, Edna O’Brien, Paul Durcan and Melvyn Bragg.

The shortlisted entrants for the 43rd annual Hennessy Literary Awards:

First Fiction

Brendan McLoughlin, Last Breath

Helen Murray, The Science of Falling

Michael Lawlor, That’s All I’m Saying

Colm O’Shea, My Eurydice

Hilary Dully, Skirting Murph

Emerging Fiction

Sean Kenny, Is this Australia?

Eileen Keane, A Perfect Prayer

Rachel Donohue, La Belle Epoque

Neil Banks, Reasons Why

Chris Connolly, Lovebird’

Robert Higgins, Caldene, 1993

Kieran Marsh, Thickened with Blood

Emerging Poetry

David Cameron, Night Singing and B&B

Laura McKenna, Grace and Forensic Analysis

Kevin Graham, Daddy, Daddy and The Lesson

Evan Costigan, The Kiss and Lithograph

Nora McGillen, The Knife Sharpener and Sligo Station

Jane Clarke, Among the Crows, The Suck and Dry Stone