This year, Irish poet Eavan Boland was presented with an award at the 2017 Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards. She received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award “for her art, for her eloquence and for her stalwart advocacy for poetry”. Once again Big Red Engine were invited to make the tribute video for the event. It features contributions from Tom French, Maureen Kennelly, Michael Schmidt, Paula Meehan and Nessa O’Mahoney.
Over the years we have loved profiling the previous recipients of these awards. These include John Montague, JP Donleavy, Paul Durcan, John Banville, Maeve Binchy, Nobel prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney and Jennifer Johnston.