LIMERICK’S FAVOURITE MASKED rappers and an Irish play about glasses have both been named winners at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year.

The Rubberbandits scooped the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, which they announced was really the result of a cunning ruse:

The Wheelchair On My Face

Meanwhile, Sonya Kelly and Fishamble: The New Play Company won the Scotsman Fringe First award for the second year in a row, for their production of The Wheelchair on My Face.

The play was written and performed by Sonya Kelly, directed by Gina Moxley and produced by Marketa Dowling. Last year, Fishamble and Pat Kinevane won a Fringe First for his play Silent.

Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan TD described the win as “an extraordinary achievement”.

They weren’t the only Irish winners – comedian Aisling Bea became only the second woman ever to win the So You Think You’re Funny Award, which has previously been won by David O’Doherty and Dylan Moran.

Here are the Rubberbandits performing their song Spoiling Ivan (their only one without cursing in it) for an Edinburgh radio station:

(ForthOne973/Youtube)

Read: “I feel like the Rose of Tralee” – Irish comedian Aisling Bea wins big in Edinburgh>