A £5,000 poetry award established by Limerick County Council and the Arts Council is one of the biggest in the State. It recognises poetry in Irish and English.
The annual award is in memory of poet Michael Hartnett, from Newcastle West, for his contribution to literature.
Ms Joan MacKernan, Limerick County Council's arts officer, said the council had planned to award Mr Hartnett, who died last October aged 57, a residency to the value of £5,000 as part of a millennium programme for this year and acknowledging his contribution to poetry in Irish and English.
"In the spirit of that and his own generous encouragement of fellow poets and writers, we decided to take this route to honour him," she said.
The award is aimed at poets in mid-career, she added, and was the biggest for a collection of poems in the Republic involving a local authority.
"Hopefully, it will prove to be a jumping-off platform for their poetry careers."
She said Hartnett was a poet of national renown born in the early 1940s who published extensively and translated many Irish poems. "His first love would be the Irish language. He was reared by his grandmother who was a native Irish speaker in Newcastle West.
"He was very influenced by the Gaelic bardic poet from Co Limerick, Daibhi O Bruadair," she said. A turning point in his career was his book of poems, A Farewell to English, where he decided he would write in Irish, although he later returned to English. "He described himself as thinking in English, dreaming in Irish. There was always that conflict about him between the two languages," she said. Among his collections are The Killing of Dreams, Poems to Younger Women and O Rathaille.
This year, the adjudicators who will select the winning collection of poetry in Irish will be Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Cathal O Searcaigh and Prof Declan Kiberd.
The award will be presented at the Eigse Michael Hartnett, a festival being held around his work and celebrating the literary world in Ireland, in Newcastle West from September 22nd to September 24th.