Local author with the stars!

Toomevara author Siobhán Hackett (née Ryan) and co-author Mary Doherty rubbed shoulders with a galaxy of stars when they recently attended the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards in Dublin.

Siobhán and Mary's book 'Shine: A Girl's Guide to Thriving (Not Just Surviving) in Real Life' was nominated for an award at the event. The awards ceremony was held in the Double Tree Hilton in Dublin.
The over-riding motivation behind the awards is to celebrate the extraordinary quality of Irish writing, to help bring the best books to a wider readership annually. The awards dinner has become the major event in the literary calendar with Taoisigh and Presidents as guests of honour. Since 2011, highlights of the awards have been shown on RTÉ television.
Exclusively Irish, inclusive in every other sense, the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards brings together the entire literary community – readers, authors, booksellers, publishers and librarians – like no other awards.
Siobhán and Mary are teachers at the Ursuline Secondary School in Thurles. Their book was shortlisted in the 'Books Are My Bag' popular non-fiction book of the year category alongside celebrities such as Bressie, Maeve Higgins, and Francis Brennan.