Fintan O’Toole and Sam McBride win 29th Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize

Fintan O'Toole and Sam McBride have won the 29th Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize for their book, For And Against a United Ireland.

For the awards' 29th year, O'Toole and McBridge won the £7,500 prize. Founded in memory of the British Ambassador to Ireland who was killed by the IRA in 1976, the renowned journalists were recognised for promoting peace and reconciliation in Ireland.

Speaking about the award, judges said that For And Against a United Ireland achieved what the Prize tries to reward, taking an open-eyed and analytical view of a subject "too often taken for granted", clarifying the issues involved on both sides, and making the reader re-examine expectations and opinions too often adopted unthinkingly.

The literary prize aims to encourage "greater understanding between the people of Britain and Ireland, and support closer co-operation between European partners".

For And Against a United Ireland was published in 2025 by the Royal Irish Academy. It examines the strongest arguments for and against a united Ireland, answering questions like: "What do the words 'united Ireland' even mean? Would it be better for Northern Ireland? Would it improve lives in the Republic of Ireland? And could it be brought about without bloodshed?," according to the synopsis.

When accepting the award, Sam McBride said: "We were seeking not to change people’s minds, but to open them. Respecting our neighbours in this divided island means accepting that they are not necessarily stupid people who rely on limp arguments. In today’s hyper-polarised world, this is increasingly countercultural".

Fintan O'Toole added: "Sam and I have hoped in a small way to reject the relentless polarisation of contemporary politics and to show that even on highly emotive topics it is possible to have respectful discussions that acknowledge that those with whom one disagrees might have things to say that are worth listening to."

Alongside O'Toole and Mc Bridge, Tom Paulin was also awarded the prize for poetry.

The 29th Christopher Ewart-Biggs Literary Prize was presented by literary critic Edna Longley at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. Last year's winner of the Prize was Derry playwright and screenwriter Lisa McGee for the third series of her acclaimed Derry Girls.

A total of six entries were shortlisted for this year's Memorial Prize.

See the nominations below:

Trevor Birney, Shooting Crows: mass murder, state collusion and press freedom (Merrion Press)

Edward Burke, Ulster’s Lost Counties: loyalism and paramilitarism since 1920 (Cambridge University Press)

Eoin MacNamee, The Bureau (Riverrun)

Cormac Moore, The Root of all Evil: the Irish Boundary Commission (Irish Academic Press)

Sam McBride and Fintan O’Toole, For and Against a United Ireland (Royal Irish Academy)

Clair Wills, Missing Persons, Or My Grandmother’s Secrets (Allen Lane)