14th April, 2008
  
Solas Nua and Enda Walsh (the writer-in-residence of the Abbey Theatre and author of Solas Nua's productions of Disco Pigs, Misterman, Bedbound and The Small Things) on 3/14/08 in NYC. Solas met with Enda to discuss past and future collaborations.

19th March, 2008

International best-selling Irish author Colum McCann and Solas Nua's Artistic Director, Linda Murray at the Arts Club of Washington. Mr.McCann's appearance was part of the events of our 3rd Annual Irish Book Day.

17th March, 2008

Artistic Director, Linda Murray, and An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern met at this year's St. Patrick's Day Party at the Residence of the Ambassador of Ireland.

4th February , 2007

Solas Nua's Artistic Director Linda Murray received a feature article in The Washington Post.
Click for article...

6th January , 2007
Enda Walsh has been named writer-in-association at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. Enda Walsh is the author of three previous Solas Nua productions; Disco Pigs, Misterman & Bedbound. In January 2007 Solas Nua will offer the U.S. premiere of Enda Walsh’s The Small Things. We are very pleased to announce that Mr. Walsh will be in attendance for the premiere.

“Walsh relishes his Abbey association” - The Irish Times, November 18, 2006

1st October, 2006
Solas Nua’s Producing Director was featured in D.C. Style magazine.
Article and photo.

9th September, 2006
Solas Nua’s Bedbound awarded one of the best shows of the year!
DC Theatre Review has named Bedbound the second best play of the 2005 - 2006 season. Congratulations to everyone involved with the production.
Read the full article at DC Theatre Review.

7 August, 2006
Solas Nua is featured in the national publication Variety Magazine.
Read full article here

10th October, 2005

Banville Wins Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2005
by Joe Dempsey

It might have seemed like a long wait, but it was actually two long waits.

By the time 59-year-old Wexford native John Banville received Man Booker Prize for Fiction on October 10 for his novel The Sea, 16 years had come and gone since he’d been shortlisted for the same honor in 1989 for The Book of Evidence. (He lost.)

But Banville’s victory also meant that an Irish winner took the UK’s top literary prize for the first time since 1993, when the honor fell to Roddy Doyle for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha.

Not that there’s been a dearth of notable novels from his homeland. When asked about the high quality of Irish fiction, The Independent reported, Banville cited the "extraordinary language" created when the English came to Ireland, and added that Ireland is "a completely story-based society."

The story that swayed the Booker jury—The Sea—centers on Max Morden’s return visit Ballyless, a town where he’d vacationed as a child, in what Booker-jury chair John Sutherland (speaking to The Independent) termed "a masterly study of grief, memory and love recollected…. an incredibly written piece of work if very melancholy."

Banville’s comments upon his win—according to The Irish Times, he called it "a great surprise [and] a great pleasure"—are doubtless shared by bookmakers across the UK. Noted British betting company William Hill, The Wall Street Journal reported on October 8, had placed The Sea only fourth among the half-dozen works named to the prize’s shortlist, with odds of 7 to 1. It was a safer bet than Ali Smith’s The Accidental (12-to-1) and fellow Irishman Sebastian Barry’s A Long Long Way (8-to-1), sure, but three heavyweights seemingly stood in Banville’s path—Zadie Smith’s On Beauty (4-to-1); Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (3-to-1), and the favorite, Julian Barne! s’ Arthur & George (5-to-4).

If Banville cares to wager on next year’s outcome, he’s suddenly got plenty to work with: The prize itself carries 50,000 pounds ($87,600, by The New York Times’ math), and sales of The Sea—which had barely cracked 3,300 in the United Kingdom by the Tuesday prior to the announcement, according to The Irish Times—are certain to rise. A day after the announcement, Amazon.co.uk saw a 300 percent increase in sales for the novel, according to The Times of London.