Kerry's top writers give young scribes something to crow about
THE creative juices were flowing among 60 students of Kerry Education Service schools in Tralee on Tuesday morning when they got to write poetry and stories with some of the county's best-known writers.
Imaginations flared and the presence of writers Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Billy Keane, Eileen Sheehan, Noel King and John Sexton came as a massive boost to the 60 budding scribes. Drawn from Listowel Community College, Tralee Community College and the Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí, the students were broken up into groups of 15 and went to work straight away with one of the writers.
"They have thoroughly enjoyed the day and it is a massive learning experience for all of them, especially getting to work so closely with the writers," organiser Margaret Godley of the KES told The Kerryman.
"Plus it is a load of fun. In a good example of how it works, I just popped into Billy Keane's group and Billy was looking out the window at a crow. He told the students to look out and see what they could and lo and behold the character of Josephine the Crow was born for their story!"
All the work will be published in the KES News at year's end and will appear on the KES and Kerry County Library website. The programme is part of the new Literacy Strategy from the department and saw a similar number of students from south Kerry schools take part in the same initiative at Killarney Library on Monday.
"We are delighted to facilitate this writing master class in Tralee and Killarney libraries and to encourage young writers," County Librarian Tommy O'connor said.
"We are especially thrilled to see so many teenagers coming into our libraries. Over the past number of years we have built up our resources for young people. Here as in many of our libraries we have a dedicated young adult section where the latest teenage books are available. We have also worked with KES and provided the Junior Cycle English reading list in all our libraries."
Meanwhile, the knock-on effects are just as beneficial to all the schools. "What teachers find is that even those students who don't take part benefit when their friends come back to school buzzing with the experience of it all. It has a knock-on effect and encourages other students to get pen to paper as well."
- DÓNAL NOLAN
