Arts and Literature
- 5 January—Sebastian Barry wins the Costa Prize for Fiction for his novel The Secret Scripture at the 2008 Costa Book Awards.
- 19 March—The poet Seamus Heaney is awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature, honouring him for his lifetime's work.
- 7–8 March—Brian Cowen nude portraits controversy: Nude portraits of the Taoiseach are clandestinely hung in the National Gallery of Ireland and Royal Hibernian Academy's gallery by Conor Casby.
- 17 April—Seamus Heaney's 70th birthday. Commemorative audio recording, Seamus Heaney Collected Poems, released of Heaney reading from his collected work.
- 11 June—Man Gone Down, the debut novel of American Michael Thomas, wins the 2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
- 24 November—Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn) and Peter Murphy (John the Revelator) are included on the shortlist for the 2009 Costa Book Awards.
- c. September—Size2shoes release their first album, Size2shoes.
Read more about this topic: 2009 In Ireland
Famous quotes containing the words arts and, arts and/or literature:
“A man must be clothed with society, or we shall feel a certain bareness and poverty, as of a displaced and unfurnished member. He is to be dressed in arts and institutions, as well as in body garments. Now and then a man exquisitely made can live alone, and must; but coop up most men and you undo them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.”
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852)
“I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)