Barry also picked up the Readers’ Prize, judged by Edge Hill Creative Writing students, at the awards ceremony last night at Waterstones in London for his collection Dark Lies The Island, published by Jonathan Cape.

"I feel bad that I’ve actually won two prizes," he said after picking up both the first prize of £5,000 and the £1,000 Readers’ Choice Prize. "Maybe I’m not always the most humble child in the room but with such talent on the shortlist I feel very close to humble tonight. My thanks to Edge Hill University for keeping this important prize going. The short story should be kept to the fore as it’s such an important genre of writing – we need stories in our lives."

The 2013 IMPAC Dublin Literary Award winner started out as a journalist contributing to various publications including The Irish Times and The Guardian before leaving the field to produce a series of short stories.

"For me the short story is my first love," he said. "When I started out in journalism I always felt that there was a murky part in my brain that I wasn’t using, and that’s when I started to write short stories. I think that the genre has become more popular in recent years, particularly as more people are reading online, so they want more intense reads and the short story fits this perfectly – long may it continue."