Culture

Eight new members elected to Aosdána

Booker winner Paul Lynch among new members of creative artists’ association

Poets Mary O'Donnell, Theo Dorgan and Enda Wyley at the Aosdána general assembly on Tuesday. Photograph: Ger Holland

Mark Hilliard
Tue Mar 26 2024 - 18:47

Aosdána, the affiliation association of creative artists in Ireland, has elected eight new people to its ranks of 250 members, including the recent Booker Prize winner Paul Lynch.

Mr Lynch won the literary award for his fifth novel Prophet Song.

The other new members hail from a variety of disciplines including visual arts, music, architecture and literature.

Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh, a graduate of fine art painting from Dublin Institute of Technology, has won the Hennessy Craig Scholarship and 2019 Hotron Award, among other honours.

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Ed Bennett’s music is performed and broadcast in over 30 countries. According to Aosdána, his substantial body of work includes orchestral, ensemble pieces, solo works, electronic music, opera, and works for dance and film.

Dublin native Andrew Hamilton has had works performed by Irish National Opera, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Irish composer Shaun Davey’s works include The Brendan Voyage and Granuaile, exploring commonalities between musicians of aural and classical traditions. His work in theatre and film has been internationally recognised with two Bafta nominations, an Ivor Novello Award and a Tony nomination.

Since co-founding ANU in 2009, Louise Lowe has directed all of the company’s multi-award winning work in theatre productions at The Gate, the Dublin Theatre Festival, the Manchester International Festival, the Abbey, and the London International Festival of Theatre.

Catherine Dunne has written 12 novels and other works. She has received the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Contribution to Irish Literature in 2018, and in 2021, was decorated as Cavaliere of the Order Stella d’Italia.

Roisin Heneghan, an architecture graduate from University College Dublin and Harvard University, cofounded Heneghan Peng architects with Shih-Fu Peng in New York. Her completed projects include the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Giant’s Causeway Visitors’ Centre and the refurbishment of the National Gallery of Ireland Historic Wings.

Aosdána was founded in 1981. Membership, which is limited to 250 creative artists, is by peer nomination and election.

A minute’s silence was held at Tuesday’s Aosdána general assembly, in Dublin Castle, in memory of former members Camille Souter, Críostóir Ó Floinn, Maurice Scully, Michael Viney, Seóirse Bodley, and Thomas Kilroy.

Mark Hilliard

Mark Hilliard

Mark Hilliard is a reporter with The Irish Times

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