Sincere thanks to all who voted in the 2025 International Flann O’Brien Society Awards. The votes have been tallied and we are now delighted to announce the shortlisted candidates. 

Based on the public votes, there are 3 shortlisted nominees in the Best Book category, and 5 shortlisted nominees for Best Article. The winners will be chosen from the shortlists by impartial judges appointed from outside the Society, and are, of course, unknown to the nominees. The winners will be announced at An Fód Dúchais: Home, Heritage and Origins: The 8th International Flann O’Brien Conference, Strabane, 25th – 27th June. 

Best of luck to all the nominees!

Shortlisted Candidates

Best Book-Length Publication 2023-24

·      Katherine Ebury, Paul Fagan, and John Greaney. Flann O’Brien and the Nonhuman: Environments, Animals, Machines. Cork University Press, 2024.

·      Tobias W. Harris. Flann O’Brien and the European Avant-Garde, 1934–45: Dublin’s Dadaist. Bloomsbury, 2025. 

·      Brian Ó Conchubhair. Myles na gCopaleen agus Flann O’Brien: An Saol Bocht. Leabhar Breac, 2025.

Shortlisted Candidates

Best Essay-Length Publication 2023-24

·      Brooker, Joseph. ‘“The Play, boy, of the Wet, Stern World”: Flann O’Brien and John Millington Synge’. The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 7, no. 1 (2023): 1–6. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pr.8648

·      Fagan, Paul. ‘Flann O’Brien’s Vibrant Atmospheres’. The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 8, no. 1 (2024): 1–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pr.16349

·      Fuchs, Dieter. ‘Milesian Rewritings of the Annunciation to the Virgin in “The Martyr’s Crown” via Petronius, Dante, and Shakespeare’. The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 8, no. 1 (2024): 1–19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pr.15135

·      LaBine, Joseph. ‘“Information, Please”: Brian O’Nolan and the Radio’. The Parish Review: Journal of Flann O’Brien Studies 7, no. 2 (2023): 1–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.16995/pr.9171

·      Long, Maebh.  ‘“Not with a bang but a whimper”: Uncovering Pandemic Strains in Flann O’Brien’s Later Works’. Irish Studies Review 31, no. 4 (2023), 488–501. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09670882.2023.2261390

Flann O’Brien Society Awards