IMPRESSIVE STORIES EXPLORING HUMAN CONNECTION SHOW WEALTH OF WRITING TALENT IN IRELAND
WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED AT SPECIAL AWARDS EVENT ON FRIDAY 29TH NOVEMBER
BROADCAST ON RT RADIO 1'S ARENA ON MONDAY 2ND DECEMBER (7PM)
DETAILS: www.rte.ie/writing
TICKETS: https://www.paviliontheatre.ie/events/view/arenalive
FOLLOW: #rteshortstory
RT has announced details of the ten exciting new stories which have been shortlisted for the RT Short Story Competition 2024 in honour of Francis MacManus, from close to 1,500 entries submitted.
The judges were writers Neil Hegarty, Claire Kilroy and Kathleen MacMahon.
The shortlisted stories, in alphabetical order by story title are:
Artifice, by Sharon Guard
Chambermaid, by Fiona O'Connor
Dead Bait, by Mattie Brennan
Dessie and Hopper, by Susanne Stich
Divination, by Stephen O'Reilly
Once Upon an Algorithm, by Ryan Delaney
Planning the Leftovers, by Sheila Barrett
The Other rla, by Emer O'Toole
The Rehearsal, by Alexis MacIsaac
Turncoat, by David Ralph
***Information about the writers and their stories are included in the NOTES below, along with the RT Radio 1 broadcast schedule.
Neil Hegarty, who joined the judging panel this year said: I'm deeply impressed by the entries submitted this year. Quite simply, it's so heartening to see the sheer quality of writing on display. I'm also struck by how these stories track emotional lives in all their variety and complexity: art acts as a barometer of society, of course, but it seems to me that the RTE Short Story Competition in particular truly mirrors the preoccupations of our society in the here and now.
Fellow judge Claire Kilroy added: There were several recurrent themes: grief, sexual politics and the differences between male and female worlds
Judge Kathleen MacMahon commented that: human connection was the subject of almost every story we read this year - the need for it, the obstacles to it. In exploring this fundamental theme, this year's Francis Mac Manus finalists showed us once again the wealth of writing talent that exists in Ireland and the ever-renewing energy to explore the landscape of our lives through words.
All ten stories will be published on rte.ie/culture on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th November, and broadcast (read by actors) over the course of the following two weeks, from Monday 18th November on RT Radio 1's Late Date. They'll also be featured regularly on RT Radio 1's Arena in advance of the awards event an RT Radio 1 Arena special programme, presented by Se n Rocks at the Pavilion Theatre in D n Laoghaire, Co. Dublin, at 7pm on Friday 29th November, which all the shortlisted writers are invited to attend. The event will feature readings of extracts from all ten shortlisted stories, each followed by a discussion with all three judges before they award their top prizes.
The winning writer will receive 5,000, while the second and third placed writers will receive 4,000 and 3,000 respectively. All seven runners-up will receive 250 each.
The RT Radio 1 Arena special will be broadcast at 7pm on Monday 2nd December 2024.
Tickets for that event are now on sale here
Sarah Binchy, series producer said: This is another delightfully fresh and varied clutch of stories, with great talent and verve on display from this year's writers. We're looking forward to sharing the stories on rte.ie/culture, on air and on podcast, voiced by some of Ireland's finest actors - and gathering in person with the judges, writers and audience members to award the top prizes as part of the Arena short story finale in the Pavilion Theatre in Dun Laoghaire on Friday 29th November.
Set up in 1986 to honour writer and broadcaster Francis MacManus, the RT Short Story Competition has been a critically important launch pad for new and emerging writers in Ireland. Past winners and shortlisted writers include Claire Keegan, Molly McCloskey, Danielle McLaughlin, Anthony Glavin, Chris Binchy, Nuala O'Connor, Liz Nugent, Colin Walsh, Stephen Walsh, Austin Duffy and Sarah Gilmartin.
The RT Short Story Competition is free to enter, and open to any writer over 18 living on the island of Ireland, or living abroad who holds an Irish passport. Details of next year's competition will be announced in early 2025. For more on the RT Short Story Competition, see www.rte.ie/writing.
ENDS
For information: Neil O'Gorman, Corporate Communications Manager, RT | E: neil.ogorman@rte.ie
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT THE WRITERS AND STORIES (Alphabetical order by writer's first name)
ALEXIS MACISAAC (Irish Canadian, living in Ottawa)
Alexis MacIsaac is a dual Irish Canadian citizen whose writing has been featured in Masks Literary Magazine (2023 story award winner), The Bookends Review, and Agnes and True, among others. She previously toured as a musician with Irish shows Riverdance and The High Kings. Now, she works in the civil service in Domestic Oceans Policy and lives in Ottawa with her husband, Calum, and two sons, Cillian and Rafferty. She is currently working on her first novel.
The Rehearsal
This story is meant to be read as a kind of Rorschach test. In particular, I wanted to explore how men and women can sometimes view the world very differently, and how this difference in perception often exposes the tenuousness of human connection.
DAVID RALPH (Tipperary, living in Dublin)
David Ralph is originally from Tipperary and now lives in Dublin. His stories and essays have been published in Dublin Review, Southword, Banshee, New Irish Writing, Litro, Fish Anthology, Channel. He won a New Irish Writing Award in 2020 and placed third in the 2022 Fish Memoir Prize. He works as an academic in Trinity College Dublin.
Turncoat
Turncoat is about a man who has acted against
Europe Stories
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
12/03/2026
Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 11th March, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dyna...
12/03/2026
In Latin America, women are shaping music and defining its future. To kick off t...
12/03/2026
En Am rica Latina, las mujeres est n moldeando la m sica y definiendo su futuro....
12/03/2026
Let's turn back the clock 20 years: The music landscape was a world away fro...
12/03/2026
Bad Bunny is no stranger to Spotify's Billions Club. In fact, he has a whopp...
12/03/2026
Spotify was at the London Book Fair this week, joining conversations across the publishing industry about how people can make reading part of their daily lives....
12/03/2026
Mastering tool improves mono compatibility
Tokyo Dawn Labs' Ohlhorst Digital range is a series of mastering-focused plug-ins developed by Jan Ohlhorst, ...
12/03/2026
Wave FX processor integrated into four products
Lewitt have teamed up with Elgato to create a new processor for the company's Wave Next product range, i...
12/03/2026
Free tool for annotating audio files
Mix Notes is a new, free iOS App that provides users with a simple way to annotate their audio files. It's been cre...
12/03/2026
Side-chain ducking tool gets an upgrade
Devious Machines' popular side-chaining and envelope-shaping tool has just been kitted out with an improved enve...
12/03/2026
Ceremony to take place on 16 April 2026
The MPG (Music Producers Guild) have revealed the full shortlist for this year's MPG Awards, which will be takin...
12/03/2026
Emulates three classic dbx 160 variants
The latest arrival to Overloud's Gem Series plug-in range faithfully recreates not one, but three versions of th...
12/03/2026
New granular soft synth announced
Said to be their most advanced software synthesizer to date, Baby Audio's latest release has been built on a new granu...
12/03/2026
Latest version now live!
Edit 11 March 2026 - Bitwig Studio 6 is now live, and available for all to download!
The latest version of Bitwig's DAW softwa...
12/03/2026
Latest free eBook now available!
Designed for recording engineers, audio-technology students and technically minded musicians, our latest free eBook deliver...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity expands SITLine network encryptor portfolio - more...
12/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz to showcase future-proof EMC testing solutions at EMV 2026 Rohde & Schwarz will participate in EMV 2026, Europe's premier trade fair and c...
12/03/2026
Modern media operations demand a platform that unites automation, orchestration, and human oversight without compromise. In this post, we explore the six key te...
12/03/2026
A deep dive into the platform
Architecture The Blue Lucy platform follows a distributed microservices architecture, meaning the overall operational capability...
12/03/2026
Orchestration platform enables broadcasters to deploy multiple AI models safely with full auditability, rights protection, and regulatory oversight.
LONDON, En...
12/03/2026
Wuppertal March 12, 2026
Riedel Expands Managed Technology Division in the Ame...
12/03/2026
Advanced Media Server Delivers Double the Channel Density at Half the Cost per C...
12/03/2026
The Late Late Show Show St Patrick's Day special
Dancing with the Stars f...
11/03/2026
First Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) deployment of the emergency.lu platform for refugees and their host communities' use provides dependable broadband for humani...
11/03/2026
Following a successful first series, UKTV today announces the commission of two ...
11/03/2026
Wednesday 11 March 2026
Sky and CANAL launch new partnership to develop English-language drama
Sky and CANAL are today announcing a strategic co commissioni...
11/03/2026
NTCA, Cartesian Release New Report on the Business Case for USF
March 11, 2026
Network Economics
News
NTCA - March 11, 2026 - As the FCC and Congr...
11/03/2026
TELL US YOUR (SHORT) STORIES
The 2026 RT Short Story Competition is now open for entries
Recognising and rewarding the best new Irish fiction writing for...
11/03/2026
RT 's The Traitors Ireland is among the nominees for the 2026 Celtic Media Festival Torc Awards for Excellence, announced today....
10/03/2026
10 Mar 2026
VEON's Largest Market Pakistan Almost Triples Mobile Spectrum i...
09/03/2026
Contains all six dual-ensemble libraries
VSL's Duality Strings series offers an intriguing alternative to your average string library, capturing two str...
09/03/2026
Outstanding Contribution To UK Music
Photo: Samuel Bradley
Ahead of their upcoming MPG Awards, the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have revealed the latest win...
09/03/2026
Two new high-quality DI boxes announced
Boasting some impressive technical specifications and versatile routing options, Strymon's latest active DI boxe...
09/03/2026
Latest MPE-capable Soundbox library released
The follow-up release for Sonora Cinematic's Pure Nylon has arrived, and becomes the latest addition to the...
09/03/2026
Popular wireless mic head design revived
Sennheiser have revealed that the MD 9235, a cardioid mic head designed to pair up with their handheld wireless sys...
09/03/2026
Captures two sought-after Dumble combo amps
The latest TONEX release captures a pair of sought-after Dumble amplifiers from IK Multimedia's private amp ...
09/03/2026
Flexible all-analogue insert matrix joins line-up
HUM Audio Devices don't tend to do things by halves - even the quickest of glances at the likes of the...
09/03/2026
Captures three sought-after pianos
Rhodes latest software release brings together a collection of three virtual pianos: a concert grand, an acoustic upright...
09/03/2026
Flagship compressor gets an upgrade
Techivation's flagship compressor plug-in has just been treated to a ground-up rebuild that kits it out with some po...
09/03/2026
Profiler OS 14.0 enters open beta
Kemper's amp-modelling systems already have a great reputation, but the latest update to their systems' underlying...
09/03/2026
Procedural stems smasher & recomposition engine
Blinksonic have recently launched a new Reaktor-based tool which they say takes a radical departure from yo...
09/03/2026
13 - 15 March 2026 at University of Warwick Conference Centre
The Institute of Professional Sound (IPS) have announced that The IPS Training Weekend 2026 wi...
09/03/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and NETGEAR collaborate for next generation Wi-Fi 8 access point...
09/03/2026
UKTV has agreed a new partnership deal with Samsung that makes UKTV's free linear channels available to internet-only Samsung TV viewers in the UK for the f...
IMPRESSIVE STORIES EXPLORING HUMAN CONNECTION SHOW WEALTH OF WRITING TALENT IN IRELAND 
