P.J. O'Connor Awards: Winners 2009

RTÉ Radio 1 has revealed the winners of the RTÉ Radio 1 Drama Awards. 2009 is the 29th year of the awards which were established to honour the late P.J O'Connor, former Head of Drama in RTÉ Radio 1, who was noted for his encouragement of new talent. The aim of the competition is to encourage new writers to radio drama and to raise awareness of the possibilities and scope of radio as a medium in the field of drama. There is one traditional 28-minute radio play category in the competition, with prizes for first, second and third.

The winners were announced this evening live on The Arts Show at 8.00pm on RTÉ Radio 1. As well as the prize money, the winners receive a professionally produced version of their plays which will be broadcast on Sunday evenings in July at 8pm RTÉ Radio 1.

1. Dylan, Thomasina and Me by John Austin Connolly, Booterstown, Co. Dublin

2. Elvis Is Dead by Shay Healy, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

3. Happy Hour by Ashley Taggart, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6

The judges for this year's competition were: Writer, Eugene McCabe; Actor and Director, Bairbre Ni Chaoimh and Jesper Bergmann, Chief Dramaturge at The Royal National Theatre, Copenhagen. Over 500 entries were received and fourteen have been selected for the shortlist.

Shortlist 2009

Dylan, Thomasina and Me by John Austin Connolly, Booterstown, Co. Dublin

Lilters and Lovers by James Corbett, Maherafelt, Co. Derry

Brave Day for It by Derek M. Doherty, Beijing, China

Noah's Transportation by Davy Ferguson, Dunmanway, Co. Cork

Working for the Clampdown by Patrick Fitzsymons, Bushmills, Co. Antrim

Taxi by Ciarán Gray, North Strand, Dublin 3

Elvis Is Dead by Shay Healy, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4

After We Got Back by Sinead Hickey, Dundrum,
Dublin 14

How I Created a Financial Crisis by Michael Minihan, John's Hill Waterford

Shrewsbury Road by Kevin Murphy, Dalkey, Co. Dublin

A Game Of Confidence by Billy O'Callaghan, Douglas, Cork

The Come Back by Siobhan Shine, Menlo, Galway

Happy Hour by Ashley Taggart, Harold's Cross, Dublin 6

Icarus O'Neill's Rising Dilemma by Nicholas Wilkinson,
Annamoe, Co. Wicklow

About the Adjudication Panel

Eugene Mc Cabe was born in Glasgow in 1930 but has spent most of his life in Ireland. For five decades he farmed on the family farm near Clones on the Monaghan /Fermanagh border where he still lives. He is a playwright, short story writer and novelist. His work has won Irish, English, European, Canadian and American awards.

Bairbre Ní Chaoimh is a freelance actor and director. She was an Associate Artist at the Abbey Theatre for three years and Artistic Director of Calypso Productions from 1999 - 2008. She received the Judges' Special Award at last year's Irish Times Theatre Awards.

Recent directing work includes Salad Day by Deirdre Kinahan for The Abbey and Seven Jewish Children by Caryl Churchill at The New Theatre. Plays she directed for Calypso include The Wonderful World of Dissocia by Anthony Neilson, Master Harold and the Boys by Athol Fugard, Operation Easter by Donal O' Kelly (in Kilmainham Gaol), Bones by Kay Adshead, Talking to Terrorists by Robin Soans and Stolen Child, which she co-wrote for the company with Yvonne Quinn.

Other directing credits include Catalpa by Donal O' Kelly, which won a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival and a Critics' Award at the Melbourne Festival. She directed Play, Come and Go and Act Without Words II for the Gate Theatre's Beckett Festival at the Lincoln Centre, New York and at the Barbican in London. She has also directed plays for Storytellers, Druid, Red Kettle, Galloglass, Amharclann de Hide, Focus, Bewley's Café Theatre, Tall Tales and The Tower of Babel.

Bairbre has worked extensively as an actress on stage and screen, radio and television, playing in Ireland, England, Scotland, America, Japan and Australia. Her most recent stage appearance was in Walnuts Remind Me Of My Mother and her next television role is in Val Falvey for RTÉ. She has acted in numerous radio plays and recently directed Moving In Day by Dermot Bolger in Tallaght as part of RTÉ's series of plays recorded in people's homes.

Jesper Bergmann was a Dramaturge for the Radio Drama department of Denmark's Radio for 20 years. He has also worked in film and theatre and is currently the literary manager of The Royal Theatre (The National Theatre) in Copenhagen. Jesper has co-worked with 25-30 Irish writers on radio drama manuscripts. He was on the jury for the P.J. O'Connor Radio Drama Awards 2007 and 2008.