Playwright compares Aosdana honour to last rites

Eminent playwright Brian Friel joked as he received the Aosdana’s highest honour today that it was like being read the last rites.

Major artistic figures including writer Seamus Heaney, painter Louis le Brocquy and poet Theo Dorgan looked on as President Mary McAleese placed a golden Torc around Friel’s neck as a symbol of being elected a Saoi in Aosdana.