The Irish Times

Six contenders, including the Glucksman Gallery in UCC, are in the running for the 2005 Stirling Prize for architecture. The choice of Edinburgh as the venue for this year's Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize gala dinner on Saturday evening doesn't necessarily mean that the controversial Scottish Parliament has already been anointed. Quite the reverse, as the Scots would say. It is up against stiff competition from buildings by Will Alsop, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Bennetts Associates and our own O'Donnell and Tuomey, no strangers to awards. Indeed, the odds offered by bookmakers when the shortlist of six was first announced in July made the parliament a rank outsider. Designed by the late Enric Miralles, who died long before it was built, this almost volcanic eruption below the Salisbury Crags was described by the jury as "a remarkable architectural statement which has an enormous impact", not least due to its "series of extraordinary spaces and their changing effects".