Binchy was honoured, posthumously, with the Eason Popular Fiction Book of the Year for her novel A Week in Winter.
Taylor won the Lifestyle Sports Sports Book of the Year for My Olympic Dream while Edna O’Brien was awarded the Argosy Non-Fiction Book of the Year for Country Girl.
Jennifer Johnston received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to Irish literature. Her most famous novel is The Old Jest which won her the Whitbread Book Award 1979. It was later made into a film starring Anthony Hopkins.
Donal Ryan won The Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year award for his novel The Spinning Heart.
Awards for children’s books were received by Oliver Jeffers for This Moose Belongs to Me and by Eoin Colfer in the senior category for Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian.
The Atlas of the Great Irish Famine was voted the International Education Services Best Irish Published Book of the Year. It was written by John Crowley, William J Smyth and Mike Murphy.
Catherine Fulvio won the Avonmore Cookbook of the Year award for Eat Like and Italian andthe Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year award went to Tana French for Broken Harbour.
Over 42,000 votes were cast to decide the winners and voting is still open for the overall Bord Gáis Energy Book of the Year at www.irishbookawards.ie. The winner will be announced Monday December 17th.
You can catch all the highlights from last night’s ceremony on RTÉ One tomorrow at 11:05pm.
