The Divine Comedy has won the Choice Music Prize, the Irish equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, that aims to celebrate Ireland's 'album of the year'.
Twelve Irish media types met in Dublin last night to decide which of the ten shortlisted albums should be awarded the overall Irish Album Of The Year prize. In the end Neil Hannon's Parlophone released long player 'Victory For The Comic Muse' was chosen and he was presented with a cheque for 10,000 euros and a special glass trophy.
Hannon was by no means the favourite to win the prize, and earlier in the evening he'd said he had "a snowball in hell's chance" of winning, all of which meant he had no speech prepared when he was announced as the overall winner.
Eight of the ten shortlisted acts, including Duke Special, David Kitt, Republic Of Loose and Si Schroeder, performed at the Dublin awards event which is in its second year, won last year by Julie Feeney's '13 Songs' album.