BORD GÁIS ENERGY
Bord Gáis Energy is a dual-fuel, all-island business that serves over 900,000 gas and electricity customers with exemplary service at a competitive price, procuring energy efficiently on wholesale markets and investing in energy assets to support its growth objectives in the energy markets in Ireland. Bord Gáis Energy is the retail arm of Bord Gáis, selling gas and electricity to all market segments, with related activities including call centre management, billing and sales and marketing. It also provides appliance servicing products to customers. It serves over 600,000 gas customers and 300,000 electricity customers. Bord Gáis Energy became the awards headline sponsor in 2010 and have proved perfect partners, bringing resources, expertise and passion to the cause.
AVONMORE
A household name & a much loved family favourite, Avonmore is delighted to sponsor the Irish Cookbook of the Year 2012. We at Avonmore are passionate about food & cooking & have created a dedicated cookery website, www.cookwithavonmore.ie to provide our consumers with easy to make, delicious recipes for everyday enjoyment and special occasions. Consumers can also view award winning Irish chef Oliver Dunne of Bon Appetit, Malahide create delicious recipes using everyday ingredients on the Avonmore Online YouTube food channel. Cook with Avonmore promotes quality food using fresh Irish ingredients & we are very happy to sponsor this prestigious food award at the Bord Gais Energy Book Awards.
LIFE STYLE SPORTS
Life Style Sports was born in 1979 when Bob Marley was rocking around in his Adidas Originals and since then we have grown to become Irelands’ biggest and best sports and fashion retailer. The company is not just a retailer or a business; it is a brand made of 800 madly passionate team members who eat dream and sleep the brand. We believe in being connective & celebrating people coming together to experience and share their passions. We are about inspiring people, so that they can be at the top of their game, at work here with us, on the pitch or at play! Life Style Sports is delighted to sponsor the Sports Book of the Year award.
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT
The Sunday Independent is the biggest selling Irish Sunday newspaper by a large margin. It is now owned by businessman Sir Anthony O’Reilly, and is part of a worldwide newspaper group that includes The Independent in the United Kingdom. The newspaper was edited by Aengus Fanning until his death in 2012. The new editor, Anne Harris, along with literary editor, Madeleine Keane, has been a strong supporter of these awards since their inception. Since 2011 the Sunday Independent has sponsored the Newcomer of the Year Award.
RTÉ RADIO 1
John Murray hosts a weekday morning show on RTE Radio One. Listeners can expect entertaining, lively conversation and invigorating debate, cut through with John’s irreverent and singular style. Taking a wry look at ordinary,everyday events and a sideways sweep at the stories all around us, the show has become the intelligent alternative for morning listening. Like his predecessor Ryan Tubridy, John has proved himself a worthy champion of books, and the show’s focus on books and reading continues.
ARGOSY INDEPENDENT BOOK WHOLESALERS
Ireland’s only independent book wholesaler, Argosy has a long tradition in bookselling and in supporting Irish publishers and authors. From the 1930s until the early 1960s Argosy was a commercial library with outlets throughout the country. A character in The Hill Bachelors by William Trevor remembers those days – They always brought more books than they could read, denuding the shelves of the Argosy Lending Library, owing a bit on them when they returned.
With the advent of the paperback Argosy became a book wholesaler and today Argosy is one of the pillars of the Irish book business.
EASON & SON LTD
It was in the heady days of Parnell and the Land League that Charles Eason acquired the business from W.H. Smith in 1886. Today, Eason and Son have forty-five outlets in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the flagship being our store in O’Connell Street, Dublin. Throughout the island of Ireland, our shops stock an extensive range of books, newspapers, magazines, greeting cards, and stationery. Some shops also stock music, video, DVDs, toys, and computer accessories.
IRELAND AM
Ireland AM is Ireland’s only live breakfast TV show broadcasting on a daily basis from 7 to 10am. Since its launch in Sept 1999, Ireland AM has quickly risen to become the most watched breakfast show in Ireland (beating GMTV, BBC, Channel 4 and Sky). With its unique young profile the show reaches in excess of 200,000 viewers each morning. Ireland AM keeps viewers updated throughout the morning with news, weather and a winning combination of light, heartwarming, informative and often hard hitting interviews along with plenty of fun features.
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERVICES LTD
International Education Services Ltd is a wholly Irish-owned family business. Providing a complete Library service, IES specialise in the supply of Children’s books to local authorities and government departments. IES are also the leading supplier of children’s books to primary and secondary schools throughout Ireland. The company takes great pride in its expertise in the area of children’s literature, and commands a dominant share of this market throughout Ireland.
SPECSAVERS
We are delighted to welcome Specsavers as sponsor of the 2011 Irish Book Awards Children’s categories. Specsavers has been Ireland’s family optician for the past twenty years and is passionate about providing affordable eyecare for everyone. Naturally, that includes ensuring people can see clearly when reading, hence Specsavers’ long-running sponsorship of the More 4/Channel 4 TV Book Club and a growing range of educational and literacy programmes. Specsavers was founded by Doug and Dame Mary Perkins in 1984 and continues to grow in Ireland, where it currently has 39 stores.
NATIONAL BOOK TOKENS
National Book Tokens began in 1932 when Harold Raymond, a publisher, noted that the chief difficulty people found when giving a book was the fear of getting the wrong book. His response was the brilliantly simple notion of the book token. Over 75 years later his invention is still going strong. National Book Tokens are sold and exchanged in more outlets than any other book voucher in Ireland.