For many years The O'Brien Press has been winning awards, underlining the emphasis on quality in our books. Our children's books have been particularly successful over recent years, both in Ireland and abroad.
In addition to awards for individual titles, we are extremely proud that the company has won awards too:
The O'Brien Press has been singled out for exceptional recognition in the field of children's publishing by the Reading Association of Ireland. The RAI Special Merit Award 1997 was presented to publisher Michael O'Brien with a citation which read "for exceptional care, skill and professionalism in publishing, resulting in a consistently high standard in all of the children's books published by The O'Brien Press". This was the first time ever that the prestigious award has gone to a publisher rather than to a specific book and it recognises the overall quality of the children's books produced by The O'Brien Press over the years.
Our publisher, Michael O'Brien, also a founder member of both iBbY Ireland and Children’s Books Ireland, won the CBI Award of the Decade for Services to Children’s Literature in 2006.
In 2021 The O'Brien Press received an NCBI Vision Award "In Recognition of Outstanding Leadership towards an Inclusive Society" for our work with their Bookshare platform, which enables reading disabled people throughout Ireland have access to millions of books, in whatever form is required for them to be able to read.
Here is a selection of awards for individual O'Brien Press titles: