RTÉ Short Story Competition

Guinness & Coke by Lochlainn McKenna one of the 10 Shortlisted Stories in this year's competition, tells of father-and-son weekend adventures by car throughout the length and breadth of the country. Wonderfully written with matter-of-fact child’s eye storytelling but with an undertow of sadness

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Tonight’s story from the shortlist of this year's RTÉ Short Story Competition, Tactics, by Andrew Maguire, is “impressive, commanding and intense” in the words of the judges. Unusually – but to great effect – it’s told in the future tense. It features a boy, Wojciech, who plays snooker with older Irish men in a shebeen – playing to win

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In Beneath the Trees, Where Nobody Sees, by Julie Cruickshank, a woman takes her daughters and nephew on a playdate to a park where there’s a tree the children love. But underneath the surface, something darker is going on…

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One of the 10 Shortlisted Stories from this year's competition, the story moves fluently between past and present as a man and his granddaughter in Inishowen try to rescue an injured bird. Everything will be Recorded is read by Lalor Roddy

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The Brow of the Hill, one of this year's shortlisted of ten, "takes us to a snowy Sunday morning in December 1886 on the feast of St Sabas, a day when death and life intermingle. The setting is magnificently rendered, the images are striking, it’s like stepping inside a painting. " The Brow of the Hill by Edel Moloney is read by Derbhle Crotty

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Neadú, by Ceri Garfield, is one of the first Irish language entries to make it to the shortlist of the RTÉ Short Story Competition in a few years. Described by the judges as “beautiful and tender”, Neadú is the story of a little boy who’s confined to home; he finds a bird and with it a tantalizing glimmer of the world beyond his boundaries.

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One of 10 shortlisted stories from this year's RTÉ Short Story Competition Hands; A Downpour by Aengus Murray, is read by Liam Carney. Taking the form of a single continuous sentence, it was inspired, the writer says, by “a dejected figure” he saw, “standing in the middle of the footpath as rain teemed down upon and around him."

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“A clever, delightful story with a rare mix of playful humour and deadly seriousness,” is how this year’s competition judges described The Shape on the Strand by Katherine Duffy, a ghost story concerning a literary translator, a transgression, and a feathered hat which was awarded third prize in the RTÉ Short Story Competition 2020

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Kissing Booth by Alan Walsh was awarded 2nd prize in this year's competition. Read on air by Bláithín MacGabhann, Kissing Booth is described by the judges as a dark, clever, funny dystopian tale of our times in which catching a virus is a ticket to a better life

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The winning entry to the RTÉ Short Story Competition 2020: Flower Wild - the story of the Irish woman, Violet Gibson, who shot Mussolini - was written by Shane Tivenan and is read by Ingrid Craigie

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