Hubert Butler was one of Ireland’s most respected essayists and the Hubert Butler Essay Prize, organised by HEART London, encourages the art of essay-writing across Europe.
The title for this year’s essay is: ‘“Poetry makes nothing happen” (WH Auden). What impact can high culture make in the real world?’
The quotation in the essay title is taken from Auden’s elegy for Yeats, written in 1939, just before the outbreak of the Second World War. In times of global conflict, there can be an acute awareness of the impotence of art. What impact, if any, can high culture have in a world threatened by disaster?
Entries were judged by Catriona Crowe, Roy Foster (Chair), Nicholas Grene and Barbara Haus Schwepcke. There is a prize sponsored by Haus Publishing of €2,500.
Join us in the Parade Tower for the prize-giving ceremony and discover the winner of The Hubert Butler Essay Prize 2026.
Book Tickets
| Mon 10 Aug, 12.00p.m. | Free but Ticketed | Book Now |
