{"id":17031,"date":"2025-09-12T17:13:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/17031\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:13:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:13:07","slug":"john-boyne-disappointed-at-withdrawal-of-ucd-james-joyce-award-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/17031\/","title":{"rendered":"John Boyne \u2018disappointed\u2019 at withdrawal of UCD James Joyce award \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The author John Boyne<\/a> has accused University College Dublin\u2019s<\/a> Literary and Historical Society of \u201ccowardice\u201d following its decision to withdraw an honour it planned to bestow on him. <\/p>\n

Mr Boyne said he was baffled and disappointed by the move. <\/p>\n

In a social media post on Friday, the writer said he had received a letter from the society last month awarding him the James Joyce Award which, he said, has been described as \u201cthe highest honour any student body in Ireland can bestow\u201d. <\/p>\n

However, it subsequently said the honour was no longer on the table, according to the author. <\/p>\n

Mr Boyne, who is best known for his bestselling 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, said the reasons for offering him the prize \u201cwere deeply moving and I felt honoured\u201d.<\/p>\n

He shared the letter from the Literary and Historical Society, in which it stated that it was honouring him \u201cas one of Ireland\u2019s most celebrated and courageous literary voices and a proud Dubliner\u201d.<\/p>\n

It added that he had \u201cconsistently tackled the themes that matter \u2013 identity, morality, power, shame and the search for truth with searing honesty and compassion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a world that is increasingly divided and uncertain your insistence on empathy, justice and authenticity is more vital than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter stated that the author confronted \u201cuncomfortable truths with courage\u201d and in doing so offered his readers, \u201cespecially young people, a mirror in which they can better understand themselves and the society they live in\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the author then noted that \u201cby an unhappy coincidence, the Polari Prize nonsense blew up the following day and, from my very first reply, my messages [to UCD\u2019s Literary and Historical Society regarding its letter] over the next six weeks were completely ignored, as were messages from my agent\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last month the Polari Prize, the annual literary prize for LGBTQ+ literature, announced it planned to \u201cpause\u201d the prize<\/a> this year following a controversy around the nomination of a book by Mr Boyne. <\/p>\n

Its longlist for this year\u2019s Book of the Year prize included his novel Earth. After its inclusion was announced, more than half of this year\u2019s nominated authors \u2013 all of whom are born or work in the UK and Ireland \u2013 withdrew their books from the longlist and two judges resigned. <\/p>\n

The controversy stemmed largely from a birthday tribute Mr Boyne wrote for author JK Rowling in the Sunday Independent in late July. In it, he referred to himself as a \u201cfellow Terf\u201d. Terf is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.<\/p>\n

He called \u201cgrown women\u201d who support the rights of children to access gender-affirming healthcare and of trans people to use single-sex spaces \u201castonishingly complicit in their own erasure\u201d. <\/p>\n

In his latest social media post on Friday, he said that \u201cthis morning, under threat of legal action, [the society] finally deigned to respond [to his earlier messages], simply informing me that they were withdrawing the award\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Polari literary prize cancels award following backlash over Irish author John BoyneOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He described as \u201cbaffling\u201d that an organisation \u201ccan say that my \u2018insistence on empathy, justice, and authenticity is more vital than ever\u2019, that I \u2018confront uncomfortable truths with courage\u2019, and that for \u2018college students navigating questions of identity, belonging, and ethical responsibility, your work is not only moving, it is essential\u2019 and then rescind their prize when I demonstrate those very qualities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Boyne said the society\u2019s \u201ccowardice [was] disappointing, but at least it gives me another opportunity to be clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cAwards are ultimately meaningless. The books matter. Readers matter. And if using one\u2019s platform to defend the rights of women, children, lesbians and gay men means that some plaque doesn\u2019t end up on my wall … well, I won\u2019t be losing any sleep over it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Irish Times has contacted the Literary and Historical society for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The author John Boyne has accused University College Dublin\u2019s Literary and Historical Society of \u201ccowardice\u201d following its decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,15715,10368,5762],"class_list":{"0":"post-17031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-jk-rowling","12":"tag-john-boyne","13":"tag-ucd"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}