Paul Murray's The Bee Sting won the Eason Novel of the Year prize at this year's An Post Irish Book Awards.
Murray joined a list of winners that included Liz Nugent, Mark Moriarty, Róise Ní Bhaoill, Roz Purcell, Mark O'Connell, Sophie White, Katriona O'Sullivan, Colin Walsh and RTÉ's Sarah Binchy.
The novelist described it as a "dream come true".
"What a wonderful honour, I mean the shortlist this year was just our the door, the talent that we have in this country is astonishing, it is really world class," Mr Murray said, adding that "it means so much to be recognised in your own country".
Ahead of attending the Booker Prize Ceremony in London on Sunday he said: "I'll say it to you straight up, this is probably the craziest week of my life, two award ceremonies, that is not a typical week for me."
He said he was "delighted to be travelling (to the Booker Prize Ceremony) with my friend [author] Paul Lynch."
He joked that they while they were "bitter enemies as far as the book is concerned" it was great to know "his friend and fellow Irishman" would be there.
While Claire Keegan missed out on the Novel of the Year for So Late In The Day, she went on to win the prestigious Libraries Association of Ireland Author of the Year award last night.
Just one writer brought home two awards this evening, Katriona O'Sullivan, for her book Poor which won both the Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year and the Last Word Listeners' Choice Award.
Ms O’Sullivan said: "To be honest I'm in shock, I'm absolutely delighted, especially to get the Listeners' Choice Award, it just means so much that people voted for me."
Poor documents Ms O'Sullivan's story of poverty and homelessness and how she turned her life around, becoming an award-winning lecturer whose work explores barriers to education.
"I think it resonates because while I have experienced a lot of poverty and a lot of trauma, there are pieces in my story that people can relate to, so like I was a lone parent and people can relate to that, there's addiction... but also it's a story of triumph and I talk about the people that helped me get where I am, and I think the gratitude I have maybe sings out," Ms O'Sullivan said.
"Maybe as a society we just want a bit more hope, and the story is hopeful," Ms O'Sullivan said.
Colin Walsh took home the Sunday Independent Best Newcomer Award for his debut novel Kala.
"It's brilliant, it's amazing, I can't believe it," Mr Walsh said.
"It a very humbling experience to be in the company of so many people where you've admired their work for so long, and then to be meeting these people face to face," he said.
Mr Walsh said: "Writing is a very solitary activity but one of the things that I think is so great about Ireland is that we've got this incredible literary ecosystem: you've got the Arts Council helping writers, helping the journals, helping all the festivals; you've got these amazing book sellers who are always getting behind Irish writers; and then you have the readers who are always supporting writers whether they are established or newcomers like me."
Now living in Belgium, he said: "It has just been wonderful to feel that the book has a home" in Ireland.
"That the book is really cradled by the Irish reading community is a beautiful thing."
And as people buy books a plenty ahead of Christmas next month, the author joked that if people needed "something to get you out of your turkey sandwich coma, maybe give Kala a go!"
Ukrainian Valeriia Shmyrova won the An Post New Voices Competition for The Border / Кордон, a piece she wrote about the experience of leaving her war-torn home and her former life as she crossed borders to get to safety.
"The story was about me crossing borders between countries and being afraid of that and I think more broadly speaking the story is about crossing any borders because we all cross cultural borders, national borders, social borders, every day in our life and I hope my story will encourage people not to be afraid of contact with something unknown," Ms Shmyrova said.
Novelist Liz Nugent won her fifth Irish Book Award as her novel Strange Sally Diamond won the Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year.
"It feels absolutely bonkers," Ms Nugent said.
"This story of this strange woman and the horrors of her past seems to really push some buttons in this country... I'm very chuffed to have people voting for me and voting for Sally Diamond, she's a very special character to me, my favourite character I've ever written, and she's the first main character I've written who wasn't a psychopath!" she laughed.
Historian and academic Professor Roy Foster won the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sophie White scooped National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year Award with My Hot Friend and Róise Ní Bhaoill landed the Foras na Gaeilge Irish Language Fiction Book of the Year Award.
Children's author and illustrator Peter Donnelly won another Irish Book award this time his The President’s Dog won the Specsavers Children's book for the year in the Junior Category.
The winner in the Senior Category was I Am The Wind: Irish Poems for Children Everywhere, edited by Lucinda Jacob and Sarah Webb, illustrated by Ashwin Chacko.
While the International Education Services Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year, in honour of John Treacy was won by Black and Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes by Leon Diop and Briana Fitzsimons, illustrated by Jessica Louis.
Children's Bookshop, Halfway Up the Stairs in Greystones in Wicklow was named the An Post Bookshop of the Year.
Owner Trish Hennessy described the experience as "quite unbelievable".
"The other nominees are such incredible bookshops and to win is amazing and to win as a children's bookshop is something that is really really special.
"There are so many incredible children's books out there, especially written by Irish authors and illustrators and we do our very very best to promote those," Ms Hennessy said.
RTÉ's Sarah Binchy won the TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year for Sunday Miscellany: A Selection 2018-2023, Mark Moriarty won Cookbook of the Year for Flavour and Roz Purcell won the Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year for The Hike Life (Black & White Publishing).
Mark O’Connell won Dubray Non-Fiction Book of the Year with A Thread Of Violence, while Eimear Ryan’s The Grass Ceiling was named Eason Sports Book of the Year in association with Ireland AM.
The Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year was Vectors in Kabul by Mary O’Donnell and Such A Pretty Face by Moira Fowley won the Writing.ie Short Story of the Year.
A TV special announcing the overall 'An Post Irish Book of the Year’ winner will be broadcast on RTÉ One on 6 December.
