Playwright Marina Carr received a major literary award in Dublin Castle last night.
Carr joins a long list of distinguished writers such as Seamus Heaney, Frank McGuinness, Edna O'Brien, John McGahern, John Banville, Tom McIntyre and John B Keane to have been honoured by the Ireland Funds.
Carr is the 32nd recipient of the American Ireland Fund Annual Literary Award. The poet Austin Clarke was the first to be honoured in 1971. She was presented with a bursary of $25,000 at a gala ceremony in Dublin Castle last night.
Carr is "a writer on a journey, searching a landscape of the imagination, dredging up marginalised voices, celebrating corporeal reality and exploring mystical suppositions," said Ms Loretta Brennan Glucksman, chairwoman of the American Ireland Fund, who presented the award.
"This is freedom, it's an oasis," said the playwright, who grew up in Pallas Lake near Tullamore, Co Offaly. The money will allow her, she said, "to pause and use silence for a while. . .to refill the barrel, that's as much a part of writing as writing itself. . .I've been writing non-stop since I was 22. Now I'm 38. I just need to look around." Carr"s plays include The Mai, Portia Coughlan, By the Bog of Cats and most recently at the Abbey - Ariel.
The presentation took place on the final day of the Ireland Funds' Worldwide Conference, which began at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics.
The Ireland Funds, which was a lead sponsor to the games, donating over $1.3 million, operates in 11 countries worldwide, raising money for hundreds of projects in Ireland - both north and south.
The non-profit philanthropic organisation aims to promote peace, culture, community development and education across the island of Ireland.