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Bridgend's Niamh beats 3,000
to top prize
11.09.07
A YOUNG Bridgend girl
has won a writing competition with a poem about her
beloved uncle's emigration to Boston.
Ten year-old, Niamh McMullan, a pupil at St. Aengus
National School, Bridgend, scooped the overall prize
of a laptop computer and accessories, in the
WordFlight Young People’s Written and Verbal Arts
Project.
The talented youngster was also placed first in the
8 to 10 year old category and collected an
additional €100 cash prize for her efforts. |
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The prizes were
presented to Niamh and 98 other young writers during
the WordFlight Literary Showcase Event at An Grianan
Theatre, Letterkenny on Saturday. Their work is also
showcased in the WordFlight book.
Project co-ordinator and writer |
Patrick Kearney
explained that 3,000 young people, aged 8 to 17
years across Ireland, Britain, Europe, the Middle
East, and the US, took part.
"The project was designed to encourage young people
to connect with this year’s commemorations of the
Flight of the Earls, and to use the flight as a
focal point to explore, through creative writing and
storytelling, their own experiences and imaginings
of loss and new beginnings," he said.
The showcase event also marked a new beginning for
the published young writers in the written and
verbal arts.’
WordFlight was funded through the International Fund
for Ireland, Donegal County Council, Dungannon and
S. Tyrone Borough Council and Excellence in
Cities.Tanya Crumlish, St. Patrick’s Girls’ N.S.,
Carndonagh, Donegal and Conor McDermott, Moville
Community College were also among the runners up. A
WordFlight reading tour of schools, colleges and
youth centres across Donegal, Derry and Tyrone will
take place in the coming weeks. Copies of the
WordFlight book are on sale priced €10. A percentage
of the monies raised from book sales will be gifted
to projects assisting homeless Irishmen and
Irishwomen to return to Ireland.
Copies of the book can be ordered directly from
Donegal’s new publishing press, The Stoners Press,
Artists in Creative Enterprise, Creeveoughter,
Rathmullan, Donegal. You can also contact: 074
9158836 / 086 1599068 /
info@artistsincreativeenterprise.com /
www.artistsincreativeenterprise.com .
The following is Niamh McMullan's prize-winning
poem:
My Uncle Jason moved away
a few years ago.
He’s over in Boston at the minute.
There is a lot of snow.
I think it was a big jump
for him when really young.
But now I think
he has moved on.
I think it was an experience
for him to move away.
I go to my Granny’s house and
on the phone we talk to him each Tuesday.
I would love to go to Boston,
and to see him.
I could play and talk all day,
just me and him. |
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