The Center for Irish Studies and College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas announced Enda Wyley as the recipient of the 30th Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Award for Poetry. The only prize of its type in the world, the award is granted to a poet resident in Ireland who makes significant contributions to the country’s cultural landscape and to U.S. culture as well.
The Center for Irish Studies, with generous support from the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Family Foundation, hosted a number of events throughout Ireland during the week of April 13 to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the prestigious award. These events included a reading with previous awardees and the presentation of the award in Regent House at Trinity College in Dublin where President Catherine Connolly presented the award and provided comments.
"The award is the only one like it in the world in which one institution, or indeed nation, directly recognizes a citizen and artist of one other country," said Dr. David Gardiner, director of the Center for Irish Studies. "The center and the award both emphasize St. Thomas’ place as a global origin of Irish Studies. We've offered courses in the discipline since 1964 and established the now 30,000 piece Celtic Special Collections in 1917."
Like his father, Lawrence O’Shaughnessy was a renowned supporter of and visionary for St. Thomas. Among his many gifts were an endowment that established the Center for Irish Studies in 1996. A centerpiece of this gift was the establishment of the Lawrence O’Shaughnessy Poetry Award. Since the original gift, the I.A. O’Shaughnessy Family Foundation has generously contributed to its continuance.
A resident of Dublin, Enda Wyley is a poet, children’s author, teacher and co-host of the popular podcast Books for Breakfast. Her six poetry collections include The Painter on his Bike (2019), To Wake to This (2009), Sudden Light (2025) and her debut, Eating Baby Jesus (1993); she has also published Borrowed Space: New and Selected Poems (2014), all from Dedalus Press. Among her previous awards are the Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize, Melbourne University, and a Reading Association of Ireland Award. Her work has been widely anthologized, translated, and frequently broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1. She is a member of Aosdána.
