Dr Elva Johnston (left) and student prize winner Nina Cnockaert-Guillou (right)
The Irish Manuscripts Commission Student Prize, established in 2023, offers a prize of €1,000 for editing an unpublished primary source (manuscript, typescript or transcript) of Irish interest, dating from any period. It is open to postgraduate or doctoral students within 2 years of the awarding of their degree.
Last night the inaugural Irish Manuscripts Commission Student Prize was awarded to Nina Cnockaert-Guillou (pictured above), a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, for her submission The story of the three men and the dog of Irúath taken from the UCDA, Franciscan MS A 4 version of Acallam na senórach ‘The colloquy of the ancients’. The award was presented by IMC member and editor of IMC’s serial publication Analecta Hibernica, Dr Elva Johnston, who praised the standard of submissions.
Four other students were highly commended:
Emmet de Barra (PhD candidate, TCD) for Cumam croinic do chloinn Néill — RIA, MS 23 E 26 with additional readings from RIA, MS 23 G 8 and TCD, MS 1345 (H. 4. 1–3)
John Marshall (PhD candidate, TCD) for The partition of the estates of the Marshal earls of Pembroke and lords of Leinster, 1247 — TNA, C66/273
Rachel Newell (PhD candidate, QUB) for Crimes relating to the fraudulent receipt of Separation Allowance, Belfast, July 1915 — PRONI, Crown and Peace Records, BELF/1/1/2/47/50 and BELF/1/1/2/47/51
Dr Courtney Selvage (PhD awarded 2023, University of Ulster) was highly commended in absentia for her submission Betha Farannáin, the Life of Saint Farannán — Brussels KBR, MS 4190–4200, ff 91v–94v
L-R: John Marshall (highly commended), Nina Cnockaert-Guillou (winner),
Rachel Newell (highly commended), Emmet de Barra (highly commended)