Ireland beat out Romania to host Eurocon in 2014 by a vote tally of 61-16. The Irish committee, heaqded by James Shields, has selected the weekend following the likely 2014 London Worldcon for the convention, hoping to attract fans in the United Kingdom to come over to Ireland and lengthen their fannish vacation. Shamrokon will take place the weekend of August 22 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin. Guests of Honor will include Seanan McGuire and Jim Fitzpatrick.
Irish television RTÉ is running its Storyland contest, allowing viewers to vote on webisodes of different series with the winner of each round of voting commissioned to make additional episodes, this year, one of the contestants, Victory, is a science fiction series.
Irish fan John Berry died on November 25, eighteen months after undergoing treatment for cancer. Berry entered organized fandom in 1954 after meeting Walt Willis. Over the years, he was involved in British club fandom and published several different fanzines. He ran for TAFF in 1958, losing to Ron Bennett, but the following year, Berry was the fan Guest of Honor at Detention, the Worldcon in Detroit. The following year, Berry was voted best fan writers in a poll conducted in the fanzine Skyrack. By 1962, Berry had gafiated, only returning to fandom after twenty years had passed.