AN AWARD-WINNING Limerick-born novelist has been awarded an honorary doctorate at University of Limerick (UL).
Paul Lynch won the hugely contested Booker Prize in 2023 for his novel Prophet Song.
He was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by acting UL President Shane Kilcommins.
Speaking at the ceremony in UL’s Plassey House, Professor Kilcommins commended Lunch for his “significant contributions to the academic community.”
“He is a valued member of the creative writing teaching team at Maynooth University and has generously supported our creative writing program at University of Limerick since its inception 11 years ago,” Professor Kilcommins said.
Born in Limerick on May 9, 1977, Paul lived on Shannonside for the first nine months of his life before his family moved to rural Donegal.
After his schooling and university studies, he worked as a film critic and senior sub-editor with The Sunday Tribune newspaper in Dublin.
In 2013, his first novel, Red Sky in the Morning, was published. It was selected as a book of the year by The Irish Times, The Toronto Star, the Irish Independent, and the Sunday Business Post.
His second novel, The Black Snow, was published just one year later in 2014.
The Creative Writing programme at UL was established that same year and saw Paul become an early supporter, visiting creative writing students to answer their questions and give a reading from his novel.
In 2024, Paul was named as a member of Aosdána, the Irish academy honouring artists whose work is deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts.
UL’s Professor of Creative Writing Joseph O’Connor, who read the citation at the ceremony, said that “from a promising beginning, Paul Lynch has evolved into one of the great novelists of his generation”.
