Octocon

Octocon, the National Irish Science Fiction Convention, first held in 1989, is held (almost) annually in October. It has mostly been staged in Dublin, but for four years was in the university town of Maynooth. It was not held in 2003, and in 2014, when Ireland hosted that year's Eurocon, Shamrokon, in Dublin.^[1][2] It was virtual in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic.

Octocon, Ireland
Octocon, Ireland logo
Genre	Science fiction, fantasy
Location(s)	Dublin
Country	Ireland
Inaugurated	1990
Website	http://www.octocon.com/

History

Game of thrones actor Kristian Nairn (Hodor) and Writer George R. R. Martin at Octocon in Dublin, 17 October 2010.

• 1989/1990: The convention was initiated by members of the Irish Science Fiction Association, and named by artist Peter McCanney, who created the convention's first logo.
• 1990: Terry Pratchett was the first Guest of Honour of the convention.
• 1995: Advertised Guest of Honour Mary Gentle had to cancel her appearance at the last minute, leading to the appointment of Kim Newman in her place.
• 1997: This was also the year's official Eurocon, and consequently the largest Octocon to date.
• 1998: The only one-day Octocon to date.
• 2003: The convention took a break for a year.
• 2004: For the first time, Octocon was held outside Ireland's capital of Dublin, in Maynooth, County Kildare, where it was held for 3 further years.
• 2008: The convention returned to Dublin.
• 2009: The first Golden Blaster was awarded.
• 2014: There was no October convention this year. Instead a lot of the regular organizers helped run the official Eurocon, Shamrokon, in August.

Golden Blasters

The Golden Blasters are the National Irish Science Fiction Awards for short science fiction, fantasy or horror films. Submissions can and have come from anywhere in the world, and the winners are selected by audience vote and a panel of judges.^[3]

The awards now include the Golden Blaster, The Silver Blaster and the award for the best script.

Year	Golden Blaster	Silver Blaster	Best Script
2009	Silent City (Director Rurairi Robinson)
2010	Übermensch (Directed by Simon Temple and written by Daniel Poole)	The Astronomer's Sun (Written and directed by Simon Cartwright & Jessica Cope)	He Knows by Stuart Creque
2011	Hai In Mano Il Tuo Futuro! (Directed by Enrico Maria Artale)	Hai In Mano Il Tuo Futuro! (Directed by Enrico Maria Artale)	Wet Rot by Stuart Creque
2012	Shoreditch Slayer (Directed by Simon Levene)	CRYO (Directed by Luke Doolan)	This Vehicle Has Been Checked For Sleeping Children by John Burdeaux Honourable mentions: Pet by Eoin O’Faolain and The Vox-Warrior Princess by Fiona Mustard.
2013	Locked Up (Written and directed Jane Eakin)	Sleepworking (Written and directed by Gavin Williams)	An Bean Sidhe by Eoin O'Sullivan
2014	ON/OFF (Directed by Thierry Lorenzi)	Steadfast Stanley (Directed by John Kim)	The Borders of the Imagination (Written by Benjamin A Friedman) Honourable mentions: Once A Hero by Neil Chase and The Almost Dead by Stanley B Eisenhammer
2015	C.T.R.L (Directed by Mariana Conde)	The Detectives of Noir Town (Directed by Andrew Chambers)	The Dirty Naturals Where's my Bunny? (Written by Derek Wills)
2016	The Way Back (Directed by John Carlin)	They Will All Die In Space (Directed by Javier Chillon)	Message through the Stars (Written by Vijay Varman)
2017	Einstein Rosen (Directed by Olga Osorio)	Einstein Rosen (Written by Olga Osorio)

In 2018 it was decided to have a "Best of best" award given in place of the usual structure. The overall winner was the 2017 Einstein Rosen short film.

Events

Year	Guests of Honour	Location	Date
1990	Terry Pratchett	Royal Marine Hotel	13–14 October 1990
1991	Geoff Ryman	Royal Marine Hotel	4–6 October 1991
1992	Orson Scott Card	Royal Marine Hotel	16–18 October 1992
1993	Storm Constantine	Royal Marine Hotel	30–31 October 1993
1994	Robert Holdstock	Royal Marine Hotel	1–2 October 1994
1995	Kim Newman	Royal Marine Hotel	14–15 October 1995
1996	Brian Stableford	Royal Marine Hotel	11–13 October 1996
1997 – Eurocon	Harry Harrison	Dublin Castle, Dublin	25–27 October 1997
1998 - Octocon Lite	James White	Royal Marine Hotel	10 October 1998
1999	Robert Rankin	Royal Marine Hotel	9–10 October 1999
2000	Michael Marshall Smith	Royal Dublin Hotel	21–22 October 2000
2001	Anne McCaffrey	Royal Marine Hotel	13–14 October 2001
2002	China Miéville	Royal Marine Hotel	19–20 October 2002
2003 - no event
2004	Tanith Lee	Glenroyal Hotel	16–17 October 2004
2005	Charles Stross	Glenroyal Hotel	15–16 October 2005
2006	J. G. Jones	Glenroyal Hotel	14–15 October 2006
2007	Alastair Reynolds	Glenroyal Hotel	13–14 October 2007
2008	Ken MacLeod	Royal Dublin Hotel	18–19 October 2008
2009	Mike Carey Fan Guest Dave Lally	Camden Court Hotel	10–11 October 2009
2010	George R. R. Martin	Camden Court Hotel	16–17 October 2010
2011	John Higgins	Camden Court Hotel	15–16 October 2011
2012	Liz Williams	Camden Court Hotel	13–14 October 2012
2013	Richard K. Morgan and Gail Simone	Camden Court Hotel	12–13 October 2013
2014 – No Octocon, per above & *
2015	Maura McHugh and Emma Newman	Camden Court Hotel	19–11 October 2015
2016	Rhianna Pratchett, Diane Duane and Peter Morwood	Camden Court Hotel	14–16 October 2016
2017	Dan Abnett and Nik Vincent Abnett	Camden Court Hotel	October 2017
2018	Pat Cadigan and Colleen Doran	Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown	19 - 21 October 2018
2019 - 1-day due to August Worldcon in Dublin	Diane Duane, Peter Morwood, Ruth Frances Long, Peadar Ó Guilín	Crowne Plaza Hotel, Blanchardstown	13 October 2019
2020	Michael Carroll (and fan GoHs Helen and Philippa Ryder	Virtual due to pandemic	9 - 11 October 2020
2021	No GoHs	Virtual due to pandemic	1 - 3 October 2021
2022	Michael Carroll (and fan GoHs Helen and Philippa Ryder	Croke Park Convention Centre & online	15 - 16 October 2022

• Shamrokon, a Eurocon, was run 22 to 24 August, at the Doubletree by Hilton, Dublin, with guest authors Michael Carroll, Seanan McGuire, Andrzej Sapkowski, translator Ylva Spångberg and artist Jim Fitzpatrick. Unlike 1997, this was not an Octocon.^[4]

References

1. "Meet Rhianna Pratchett - The woman behind the Lara Croft backstory". www.irishexaminer.com. 6 October 2016.
2. "Convention Connection: Geek Culture Conventions for Week 42 2018". GeekDad. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
3. "Octocon Presents..." Dublin 2019. 10 May 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2020.
4. "Welcome to nginx!".