Writers Seán Mac Mathúna (left), Dermot Bolger and Mary Beckett, runners-up for the Hughes Irish Fiction Award, with then lord mayor of Dublin Ben Briscoe at the award ceremony in October 1988. Mac Mathúna has died at the age of 89. Photograph: Paddy Whelan/The Irish TimesThe death has occurred in Dublin of the writer Seán Mac Mathúna, aged 89. Following this he became a judge on behalf of The Irish Times for the Irish Literature Prize. Mac Mathúna was also the author of a bestselling historical novel, Hula Hul (2007), a love story set in Kerry during the Civil War.

Source: The Irish Times December 31, 2025 13:11 UTC