SHANE CONNEELY - WINNER OF THE 2023
HUBERT BUTLER ESSAY PRIZE

“I’m obviously grateful to the organisers and the judges of the Hubert Butler Essay Prize 2023, and not just for selecting my essay. I’m grateful to them for creating the opportunity to have a think about these ideas and also set them down in ink. Most of all, I’m grateful to them for the introduction to Hubert Butler.

“My first encounter with Hubert was a couple of years ago when I saw another winning essay in print, and after a bit of googling his work proved fruitless, I made the journey to Lilliput Press’s shop and bought Prof. Foster’s book there. It has been a joy to dip in and out of Hubert’s work. Whether it is his attempts at securing asylum for Viennese Jews, the class conflicts and insecurities of Leningrad academics, or the true tale of who didn’t dig up Tara, Butler had an enormously empathetic eye for people, even as history obliterated them. 

“I’m especially grateful to the organisers for inspiring me to set aside some time to think and write about things which are not my usual domain. I touch off this gently in my essay, but it is hard to find and justify the time it takes to set out your thoughts on paper. In previous years, I wasn’t organised enough to write a piece for submission, or maybe I wasn’t confident enough about having something sufficiently interesting to say. 

“This is the first time that I have submitted anything to a competition like this, so what I’ll say to next year’s winner is that you shouldn’t hold yourself back, and I look forward to reading the thoughts you’ll soon be sharing with us.” - Shane Conneely

Shane Conneely is first, a storyteller, his day job sees him leading the Chambers Ireland policy team in his attempt to reshape the world for the better, albeit through the media of crunched numbers and graphs, or interminable submissions which a captive audience of civil servants have to wade their way through. If not talking or writing or reading, Shane has probably thrown a tent onto a bicycle and has disappeared off to see how far across the continent his legs will take him. He is curious, is full of notions, and is delighted to be the winner of the 2023 Hubert Butler Essay Prize.

STUART BEGLEY - JOINT RUNNER-UP

“I'll never forget the first time I read Hubert Butler's work as a student. The depth of his intellectual curiosity was astounding. Bucking the human tendency toward reductivism, he sought out complexity and revelled in it. In his wide-ranging writings, tackling such eclectic subjects from the Balkans to Hebraic puns in the Old Testament, he dug deeply, explored and expounded. It was thus not surprising to learn from one of his essays that he was also an amateur archaeologist in his beloved Kilkenny. Being a runner-up in a prize that bears his name is something that I will cherish, along with his writings, forever.” - Stuart Begley

Stuart Begley is a barrister from Dublin. This essay is my first attempt at competitive writing, my previous writing experience being confined to university essays and legal opinions.  

DESMOND TRAYNOR - JOINT RUNNER-UP

"It is indeed an honour to be selected for a Runner-Up Prize in the 2023 Hubert Butler Essay Competition – an annual event in commemoration of one of Ireland’s greatest humanitarian writers, whom I admire so much, and which is rapidly becoming a beacon for all that is good in contemporary belles lettres, and their social application, in these islands. It will be a pleasure to once again visit his hometown, lovely Kilkenny City which I love so much, to collect my award, and to attend some of the many events taking place during there during Kilkenny Arts Festival." - Desmond Traynor

Desmond Traynor is a graduate of University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, and the winner of a Hennessy Literary Award and an Alumnus Essay Award. His debut novel The Myth of Exile and Return was nominated for the 2005 Irish Novel of the Year Award. His short stories have been widely published. A frequent contributor to many Irish and international publications, writing on literature, music, film and visual art, he has taught literature and creative writing at Franklin College, Lugano, Switzerland; the School of Arts at Dublin Business School; and at UCD. He was recently awarded a Bursary in Literature, and two Agility Awards, by the Arts Council of Ireland, for a collection of essays on which he is currently at work