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THE AN POST Irish Book of the Year 2022 has been named as the non-fiction book My Fourth Time, We Drowned, by Sally Hayden.
The winner was revealed on a one-hour television special on RTÉ One this evening, hosted by Oliver Callan. Hayden’s book was among six titles competing for the award, all of which were category winners at the 2022 An Post Irish Book Awards.
My Fourth Time, We Drowned also won the ‘Odger’s Berndtson Non-Fiction Book of the Year’ at the recent An Post Irish Book Awards.
Hayden wrote the book after receiving a Facebook message asking for help from an Eritrean refugee held in a Libyan detention centre. She went on to document the migrant crisis across North Africa, using dozens of first-hand narratives from people currently living in Libyan detention centres, revealing that they were all incarcerated as a direct result of European policy.
The overall ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2022’ winner was decided by a panel of judges:
Maria Dickenson, chair of the judging panel, said:
“My Fourth Time, We Drowned is a moving, compelling and vitally important book. Sally Hayden is an outstanding Irish journalist who has taken her place on the global stage with her incisive journalism, and she has written a book that is as ground-breaking as it is humane. In it, she gives a powerful voice to vulnerable refugees, and holds the highest offices accountable for their plight. The judging panel was unanimous in its praise for My Fourth Time, We Drowned, and is very proud to recognise it as the An Post Irish Book of the Year.”
Sally Hayden is an award-winning journalist and photographer who is currently focused on migration, conflict and humanitarian crisis. She is currently the Africa Correspondent for the Irish Times, and has also worked with VICE News, CNN International, BBC and the Guardian.
She has a law degree from University College Dublin and a Master’s in International Politics from Trinity College, Dublin. Earlier this year, she won the ‘Orwell Prize for Political Writing’ in 2022.
The six nominated titles for the ‘An Post Irish Book of the Year 2022’ were:
David McRedmond, CEO of An Post, described the book as “one of the great non-fiction books for many years”.
Previous winners of this ‘Irish Book of the Year’ award include We Don’t Know Ourselves – Fintan O’Toole; A Ghost in the Throat – Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Overcoming – the late Vicky Phelan.
The An Post Book of the Year TV programme is now available to watch on the RTÉ player.
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I unfortunately had to register the death of a family member recently. Got the paperwork from the hospital in January and wanted to get it sorted quickly but was told the next available appointment at the registry office was in March. Five days is great in theory but good luck getting that go happen in practice
@Laura Diver: I’m very sorry for your loss. I hope you won’t mind me asking a genuine question? Why did you have to do it in person? My mam passed away 18 months ago and we were allowed to email, was that just a covid thing I wonder? You’d think if it worked they would allow it to continue. My dad passed away more than 10 years ago and I can’t remember how we registered his, though I know we waited 6 months for his death certificate as it was a sudden death requiring post mortem. Again my condolences
Beggars belief. Currently getting through probate is a nightmare (minimum 16 weeks), even with a will made. Can’t believe the system is efficient enough to get through this in a month.
OK so I don’t give a damn about the flipping records and what statistics they want to record (unless my loved one did die from plague or the likes). Hounding the grieving like that is disgraceful.
@Helen Downey: absolutely agree
@Helen Downey: we were waiting 19 months to get rhe inquest for my brother.
@Helen Downey: some families might want it done as soon as possible for their own reasons, it’s not just about stats.
Three months may be longer than necessary in most instances, but the suggested timeline here is disgracefully short for a grieving family, 4-6 weeks would be far more reasonable and compassionate
@Jo H: Presumably dependants will need this proof to access pension and death grants and so on?
@Fiona Fitzgerald: Yes, financial institutions etc. won’t do anything until they are provided a copy, but not everyone needs or is able to consider starting to organise that stuff within 10 days so that might not be a driving factor for many. I know people who have acted on it that day after a funeral, others who take longer. It’s a very personal thing. There should of course be a deadline, I just think the one being proposed is too tight.
The problem is that they need to fix the system behind the scenes first rather than reducing the time for families to register as the first port of call. What is the point of reducing that if it then becomes impossible to do? I mean really.
And as for triggering other services – that would be great but lets face it, departments in this country don’t talk to each other. Or else they get a bit too ahead of themselves – my dad’s pension from the Dept. of Education was stopped on his date of death based solely off his death notice in the paper. Which didn’t contain enough information to really identify him down to an individual. Absolute madness.
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