'Bosco' creator wins short story prize

The creator of cult TV puppet ’Bosco’ today won a prestigious RTE short story competition.

Dubliner Joe O’Donnell beat off competition from 22 shortlisted writers to win the €3,000 RTE Francis MacManus award.

The 'Bosco' children’s programme, which featured a cheeky red-haired puppet that lived in a box, ran on RTE in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Christmas DVDs featuring old episodes were launched in recent years.

Mr O’Donnell, who was head of Young People’s TV in RTE, was the creator and the first writer/producer of the Bosco series.

The TV veteran has also written episodes of 'Glenroe', 'The Riordans' and 'The Morbegs' as well as several dozen radio plays.

Mr O’Donnell is a former winner of the Frances MacManus award and has been shortlisted several times.

His story, Valediction also won a Waterford Crystal trophy and will be broadcast in coming weeks.

The second prize winner on the night was mother-of-three Eileen Counihan from Shankill, Dublin with ’Loser’.

Eileen has been writing all her life but has only recently started to take it seriously. ’Loser’ is her second story to be published or broadcast.

Co Roscommon writer Gerry Boland picked up the third prize of €1,000 with 'The Man with No Name'.

This year’s Francis MacManus Awards attracted over 700 entries from far and wide as well as all over Ireland.

The judges said they were were impressed by the high standard of the original 700 entries.

All of these stories will be broadcast over the summer, starting with the winning entry.

The competition, now in its 22nd year, is named after broadcaster and novelist Francis MacManus (1909-1965) who encouraged new writers and promoted new writing on radio.

The panel of judges, chaired by RTE producer Seamus Hosey, included playwrights Billy Roche and Peter Sheridan and young writer Zlata Filipovic, who wrote a famous diary about her experiences during the Bosnian War.

Over the years the competition has broadcast more than 500 stories by new and emerging writers and set many authors on the path to publication and recognition.