Manchán Magan title wins at An Post Irish Book Awards

A book by the late Manchán Magan has won one of the top prizes at the An Post Irish Book Awards.

Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)’ won the TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year.

The was released in September, just weeks before the best-selling author and broadcaster’s death.

From the An Post Irish Book Awards website:

Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)

By Manchán Magan & Megan Luddy

There are many, many words for rain in Irish.

This richness reveals a closeness with which our ancestors observed the world around them. They believed that is maith an scéalaí an aimsir – weather is a good storyteller.

Here, Manchán Magan, whose hugely popular books Thirty-Two Words for Field and Listen to the Land Speak have re-enchanted a new generation, encourages you to see the world through the eyes of the néaladóirí (cloud-watchers) and réadóirí (stargazers) of our past who depended on birds, trees, animals, and markers on land and sea for signs of weather change.

Get ready to grasp an almost-lost world through the Irish language once again in this beautifully illustrated book.

About Manchán Magan and Megan Luddy

Manchán Magan was a writer and documentary-maker. His groundbreaking book Thirty-Two Words for Field led the way for the recent revival of the Irish language. He wrote occasionally for the Irish Times, reported on travel for various radio programmes, and presented dozens of documentaries on issues of world culture for TG4, RTÉ and the Travel Channel. Manchán lived in an oak wood, with bees, hens, and occasionally pigs, in a grass-roofed house near Lough Lene, Co Westmeath. He passed away in October 2025.