Literary works reflect on the fragility of peace

The short list for The Irish Times Literature Prizes 2001 "made for a terrific feast of reading", the President, Mrs McAleese, said.

Speaking at the awards ceremony in the RDS this week, she thanked The Irish Times for guiding her towards the best contemporary writing.

"I congratulate The Irish Times for its promotion of literature and the arts; for its cherishing of the mysterious and potent value of the word; and for its courage and loyalty in offering Irish writers in particular an opportunity to work towards a prize which speaks of the respect in which they and their craft are held," she said.

The Irish Times Literary Editor, Caroline Walsh, said the award-winning authors were "lucky to have such a careful reader" in Mrs McAleese.

She said the presidents of Ireland had always been "great allies" of the Irish Times Literature Prizes.

The prizes had an "uncanny knack of capturing the Zeitgeist", Ms Walsh said.

The work of this year's prizewinners reflected society's recent focus on conflict and the fragility of peace .

"Who could have thought when we stood here two years ago that the world order would have changed so much?" she said.

Ms Walsh said it had also been a traumatic time for The Irish Times recently.

However, she was cheered by the many well-wishers who had praised the paper's centrality to the literary life of Ireland.

"The fact that work like this is being publicly honoured and celebrated in this way by the paper is a great source of pride to us at The Irish Times," she said.

In the Irish language section, the award went to Cathal ╙ Searcaigh for Ag Tn·th Leis an tSolas.

The winning writer said it had been customary for Irish-language writers to be "rather grumpy". "If they had an artificial flower the artificial flower would surely die. They were that sort of people," he said.

But that had all changed. "As a gay man I think I've given expression to the gay in Gaelic," he told the audience.

He said the other nominees for the award, Biddy Jenkinson for Rogha Dβnta and Micheβl ╙ Conghaile for Sna Fir, had both brought Gaelic literature to the attention of the world.

The chairman of the judging panel for the Irish language category, Alan Titley, said the award gave stature and recognition to writing in Irish, "which it doesn't always have in this our own country".

The international fiction prize was won by the Sri Lanka-born poet, novelist and editor Michael Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost.

Prof Anthony Clare, chairman of the judging panel for the category, also praised the other short-listed works: The Name of the World by Denis Johnson, Waiting by Ha Jin and The Human Stain by Philip Roth.

However, Dr Clare said the judges finally decided to present the award to Michael Ondaatje for his "profoundly moral" tale.

Michael Ondaatje said he had spoken to many ordinary, "supposedly unhistorical" people while researching the book in Sri Lanka and wanted to share the great honour of the prize with them.

The prizewinner in the Non-Fiction category was Angela Bourke, senior lecturer in Irish at UCD, for The Burning of Bridget Cleary.

She was introduced by Dermot Keogh, chairman of the panel that judged the poetry, fiction and non-fiction awards, who said the winning work demonstrated that high scholarship could also be outstanding literature.

Angela Byrne praised the other writers who were short-listed in the same category. Declan Kiberd was nominated for Irish Classics and Aidan Higgins for The Whole Hog.

The winner of the poetry prize, Michael Longley for Weather in Japan, said it was an honour to be nominated along with Richard Murphy, for Collected Poems, and Dennis O'Driscoll, for Weather Permitting.

Michael Longley stressed how important The Irish Times was to people in the North.

"As soon as there is a crisis, and let's face it there are lots of crises, The Irish Times sells out in Belfast and Ulster," he said.

The winner in the fiction category was William Trevor for The Hill Bachelors.

He said he felt sure the future of Irish fiction was in good hands after reading the work of the other nominees.

Emma Donoghue was short-listed for Slammerkin and Eoin McNamee for The Blue Tango.