YOUNG WRITERS WORD PERFECT

THERE WERE celebrations at Bridgetown Vocational College recently as this year’s fifth year students celebrated the end of their creative writing programme and also marked ten years of the programme.

Writer in Residence, Billy Roche has been working with fifth year students at the school, every year for the past ten years, and joked that it was the longest time he had ever held down a job for! The programme is undertaken by two English Higher Level Classes in LC1 each year.

It is funded by Poetry Ireland and the school and was facilitated this year by teachers Anne Hally and Kara Cahill.

Each year, a selection of awards are handed out to participants with four students honoured at this year’s event. They were: Joshua McLoughlin and Zuzanna Neumann - joint first; and Shane Waters and Abbigail O’Connor - joint runners-up.

To mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the programme, a book featuring writers from the previous nine years is been compiled at present.

Billy Roche said that the project had been a very interesting one, spanning over the past ten years. He acknowledged that while certain things had changed - particularly technology - the same themes were coming up again and again.

‘In general, the themes remain constant. The archetypal things are always there. For example, the Greek myths are noticeable even though the students might not have studied them. It’s interesting to read the work of people who are on the cusp of maturity. I said that I had come to inspire the students but was duly inspired by them.’

Two previous students, he said, had gone on to study creative writing in college in Galway and he remarked that, every year, they unearthed a special talent as well as giving an outlet to people who might not previously have had one.

‘It’s been a wonderful experience in a great school,’ said Billy, adding that the collection had something for everyone.

On the day, a cheque for €1,000 was also presented to the school by the committee of the Write by the Sea Kilmore Literary Festival. This will go towards the printing of the aforementioned anthology.

Teacher Anne Hally’s LC1 class with Billy Roche at the Bridgetown Vocational College Writer in Residence awards (from left) back – Shannon White, Lauren McCormack, Jake Walsh, Roisin O’Grady, Jack Lacey, Clodagh Ruthbotham, Eleanor Clayton, Naoise...

At the presentation of a cheque for €1,000 to Bridgetown College by the Write By The Sea Festival (from left) back - Siobhan Cronin, Jenny Roche, Billy Roche, Kara Cahill, Susan Kelleher, Anne Hally and Stephanie McKenna; front – Sylvia Kehoe (Write By...

Fionnuala Greene (principal), Shane Waters (joint runner-up), Abbigail O’Connor (joint runner-up), Joshua McLoughlin (joint 1st), Suzanna Neumann (joint 1st) and Billy Roche.