Tipperary writer shortlisted in RTÉ Short Story Competition

RTÉ has announced details of the ten exciting new stories which have been shortlisted for the RTÉ Short Story Competition 2024 in honour of Francis MacManus, from close to 1,500 entries submitted.

The writers include David Ralph, who 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 is about a man who has acted against his better nature, or simply followed it, and is now paying the consequences for his actions. I've seen dogs freaked out at people wearing Halloween costumes, barking, howling, yelping in fright. I wish I could say nothing whatsoever in this story's origins is autobiographical," he says. 

All ten stories will be published on rte.ie/culture on Saturday and Sunday, November 16 and 17, and broadcast (read by actors) over the course of the following two weeks, from Monday November 18 on RTÉ Radio 1’s Late Date.

Turncoat will be read by Tadhg Murphy on Tuesday November 26. 

They’ll also be featured regularly on RTÉ Radio 1's Arena in advance of the awards event - an RTÉ Radio 1 Arena special programme, presented by Seán Rocks - at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire at 7pm on Friday November 29, 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 RTÉ Radio 1 Arena special will be broadcast at 7pm on Monday December 2.

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 Órla, by Emer O’Toole 

• The Rehearsal, by Alexis MacIsaac 

• Turncoat, by David Ralph 

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