Writer Roddy Doyle and former director of Amnesty Ireland Seán Love last night received one of three Social Entrepreneurs Ireland awards at a ceremony attended by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
They received the honour for Fighting Words, a writing centre which runs free creative writing and storytelling workshops for students to enhance their writing skills.
The centre, which has been running for over two years, has hosted more than 26,000 students of all ages in workshops in fiction writing, film-making, song writing and graphic novels. Other award winners included Michael Kelly of GIY Ireland, who received an award for his mission to empower people to grow their own food, and Niamh Gallagher and Michelle O’Donnell Keating who set up Women for Election, a non-partisan organisation which wishes to see a balanced participation of women and men in political life in Ireland.