The final deadline for submitting nominations for the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Album of the Year is this Sunday 16 September. Albums must be by Irish artists and released between 28 July 2017 and 31 July 2018. To nominate an album, email the album title and artist to folkawards [at] rte.ie and include the word ‘album’ in the subject line.

A shortlist of 10 albums will then be compiled by RTÉ Radio 1 presenters Cathal Murray, Philip King, Fiachna Ó Braonáin, Shay Byrne and Lillian Smith. The shortlist will be announced on Ruth Smith’s Simply Folk programme on 23 September and the public will be invited to vote for the winning album via www.rte.ie/folkawards. The winner will be announced on the night of the Folk Awards in Vicar Street on 25 October.

Hall of Fame
The Lifetime Achievement Award and Hall of Fame Award are decided by the Folk Awards Steering Group, which has seven members from RTÉ Radio 1 (Aoife Nic Cormaic, Conor Byrne, Elizabeth Laragy, Derek O’Connor, Aidan Butler, Ruth Smith and Peter Browne), and two external members (Nuala O’Connor and Donal O’Connor).

The remaining six awards are decided by a judging panel of 40 people. The panel is confidential, but has been selected by location, age and gender. All judges were asked to nominate four in each of the six categories, and the five with the most votes made the shortlist. In cases where there was a tie, the shortlist contains six.

For more, visit https://www.rte.ie/folkawards.