Presenting the Special Tribute Award to Brian Friel last night, playwright Frank McGuinness said he had spent the last two weeks in turmoil considering what he was going to say about a writer and friend whose words had been a liberation, a celebration and a censure for the country in which he lived.
"No other man has understood us in this century as he has," he said. As a fellow Donegal man, from his very early plays such as Philadelphia Here I Come to his more recent work, he had "tormented me and challenged me", he said, remarking on the great respect with which the award recipient was held within the theatre .
The winner was, said Mr McGuinness, "a mighty man, a mighty writer, and one of the world's great theatre figures".
The announcement that the recipient was Brian Friel led to prolonged applause after which the playwright said he was genuinely quite humbled by what Mr McGuinness had said. He thanked both the ESB and The Irish Times.
"When you reach 70 years of age, strange things happen to you," he said. "One is that you become more suspicious." He asked whether he was being retired and whether the award might be a gold watch to which the attendance chanted a loud and repeated "No".
Quoting Dylan Thomas, he said he did not intend to go gently - a declaration that was greeted with a cheer and tumultuous applause.
