13 artists awarded council bursaries

A total of 13 local artists from around South Dublin were awarded SDCC’S annual Individual Artist Bursary, following a competitive selection process.

Recipients of the Bursary include author Claire Hennessy, who was awarded €5,000 for the completion of a young adult novel and writer Clare Monnelly, who received the same amount for the research and development of a new play.

Mandy O’Neill was granted €5,000 to support the development of a new body of work for exhibition at The Lab gallery which is due to take place in October.

Exhibition production, subsistence costs, studio rental and material costs will be covered by the funding.

SDCC reviewed 59 applications from artists at all career stages and backgrounds before narrowing it down to the final few.

The objective of the Artist Bursary funding is to strengthen each individual sector of the local arts scene as well as to help expand cultural capacity in the area.

The Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Artist Practice Bursary, an award that was introduced this year as part of the wider Programme, supports professional artists from under-represented backgrounds to develop their artistic practices and professional careers.

Supporting inclusive participation in the arts is an important element of this Bursary, as it recognises the barriers that many artists face and enables them to focus on the development and creation of new work.

This year, the EDI Artist Practice Bursary was awarded to three artists, Bobbi Byrne, Tierra Porter and Caitlyn O’Reilly.

Both Tierra and Bobbi received €5,000 whilst Caitlyn was awarded €1,000.

The SDCC granted artists Débora Adachi and Kata Varnyu €15,000 for their work in exploring identity, culture, and belonging through creative expression with children aged 8–12 who come from diverse backgrounds.

Recipients of the Annette Halpin Memorial Award for 2026 are Michael Afam and Niall O’Brien, who each received €1,000.

This award was established to celebrate the legacy of Annette Halpin, a singer/songwriter from Tallaght who devoted much of her life to community activism and development before her passing in 2009.

This award is reserved for young musicians, composers, singers and producers from the administrative area and is funded by the Halpin family as well as South Dublin County Council.

Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme