If you are interested in Irish Literature, then you should know that Ferdia Lennon has been awarded the 2025 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, an annual honour given to an outstanding Irish writer under 40.
The prize, worth €10,000, will be presented this evening at Trinity College Dublin. The award is administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre for Creative Writing and has been recognising emerging literary talent since 1976.
Glorious Exploits: A Novel
Lennon, who grew up in Dublin, published his debut novel Glorious Exploits in January 2024. Set in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War, the book follows two local potters and a group of captured Athenian soldiers as they attempt to stage one of Euripides' most famous tragedies.
The novel's dark humour and inventive use of a Dublin voice have earned it major praise. It won both the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024 and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Comic Fiction Prize 2024, and was also adapted for BBC Radio 4.
Reacting to the news, Lennon said he felt honoured to join the list of writers who have shaped and inspired him. He thanked the Rooney family and the judges, adding that Irish literature offers "a rich imaginative ground to return to," and that being recognised at home is something he will carry with him.