Despite suggestions at London's Guildhall on Tuesday night that the Irish had squatter's rights to the Booker, the two Irish contenders Michael Collins and Brian O'Doherty saw Margaret Atwood make off with the prize.
Literary prize junkies can now, however, move on to consider the form on the longlist of the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award 2001 which was announced in Dublin yesterday. At £100,000, this prize is the richest in the literary world.
Although heavyweight names always figure on the longlist, increasingly it's a prize that goes to a lesser-known, surprise nominee - making it at times more interesting to watch than the Booker or the Whitbread. Nominations come from more than 100 municipal libraries all over the globe and this year two Irish writers figure: Colm Toibin for The Blackwater Lightship and Roddy Doyle for A Star Called Henry. The other writers on the list include Isabel Allende, Daughter of Fortune; J.M. Coetzee - who received the highest number of nominations with Disgrace, the popular winner of last year's Booker; Anita Desai, Fasting Feasting; Helen Dunmore, With Your Crooked Heart; Michael Frayn, Headlong; Joanne Harris, Chocolat; Chang-rae Lee, A Gesture Life; Andrew O'Hagan, Our Fathers; Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet; Gunter Grass, My Century; Vikram Seth, An Equal Music; and Linn Ullmann, Before You Sleep. As this is a prize that has always been embracing in terms of genres included, it's not surprising to see John Grisham in there, with The Testament. And fans of Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod, who were amazed he didn't make this year's Booker shortlist with No Great Mischief, will be relieved to see it turning up here .
There is a panel of five judges, as well as one non-voting chairman and this year two of the judges are Irish: novelist, Colum McCann and poet, Medbh McGuckian. The other judges are Nigerian novelist, Buchi Emecheta; poet and novelist, Fred D'Aguiar, who was born in London of Guyanese parents and raised in Guyana; and Indian novelist Amit Chaudhuri. The chairman is historian Allen Weinstein.
Last year's winner of the prize was English writer, Nicola Barker, for Wide Open. The shortlist will be announced in March, and the winner in June at a gala dinner in Dublin which has become one of highlights of the Irish literary calendar. And for those who wonder what IMPAC stands for, it's the acronym for Improved Management Productivity and Control, an international Florida-based company.
SADBH hears this week that Theo Dorgan, who has been director of Poetry Ireland for 11 years, is stepping down from the post. "I've been in the job six years more than I intended," he says, pointing out how the demands of the job have increased over the years, squeezing out the time for his own work. "I've been in arts management for 22 years now." He intends to "sit home quietly and write", working on poems, translations and on a novel "which is screeching to be written" - plus a screenplay. He will continue to present the current series of RTE's books programme, Imprint.
So who will take over as Poetry Ireland director? Dorgan points out that there is currently a very good management team in place, together with a new board. "It's up to them to decide what to do," he says.
It is possible that management and the board may decide there is no need for a director; that they could just share the work out among themselves, but no doubt time will tell if this is feasible.
Dorgan leaves his post at the end of this month. So what are his best memories of his time at Poetry Ireland? "Being on the roof of Liberty Hall, looking at Dublin with Allen Ginsberg," he offers, adding: "Thinking of all the people that Poetry Ireland published for the first time. Poetry in Ireland has been moved back to the centre. It's like seeing fires lit all over Ireland, with all the readings and workshops going on now."