BELFAST-BORN novelist David Park has been awarded the Ewart-Biggs Memorial Award, which recognises works that promote peace and reconciliation in Ireland, for his book The Truth Commissioner.
A special award was made to historian Fergus D’Arcy for Remembering the War Dead.
Park’s novel is set in a post- Troubles Belfast trying to come to terms with the violence of the recent past.
It is told through the eyes of four protagonists: a former IRA man now serving as minister for children and culture; a retired RUC officer; a former IRA member living illegally in the US, and the eponymous commissioner.
On behalf of the judges, Prof Roy Foster said The Truth Commissioner “uncompromisingly explores both darkness and the possibility of light and creates an absorbing, harrowing and compelling alternative world”.
He said D’Arcy’s book struck the judges with its “powerful and judicious” exploration of how the Irish State and people have remembered their war dead.
The prize is given in memory of Christopher Ewart-Biggs, the British ambassador to Ireland who was murdered by the IRA in Dublin in 1976.
Founded in 1977, it is awarded every two years to the work that best promotes the organisation’s goal of promoting reconciliation and a greater understanding between the people of Britain and Ireland.
The £5,000 prize was presented at the Irish Embassy in London last night by Irish actor Fiona Shaw.
Former winners include Brian Friel, Brian Keenan and Sebastian Barry, whose novel The Secret Scripturewas on this year's shortlist.
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