Writing together in Ennistymon

Over the past three years Clare County Library, Clare Arts Office and MÓINÍN, publishers of children’s, teenage and adult fiction in English and Irish, have collaborated on a creative writing project for teenagers/young adults. Between 2009 and 2011, a total of thirty five students from the Shannon, Kilkee/Kilrush and Ennistymon second level schools have participated in a six-week creative writing course, delivered by the prolific and multi-award-winning author, Ré Ó Laighléis. On the evening of May 11th 2011, a public reading of short stories by the young Ennistymon writers took place at Ennistymon Public Library. This reading was the culmination of the 2011 course and was consistent with respective readings given at the end of the 2009 and 2010 courses. In each case, the stories read were the product of a six-week intensive training course, comprising six workshops, during which the students chose their own themes upon which to write and throughout which their short story writing skills were developed under Ré’s expert tutelage. Ré Ó Laighléis complimented the students, their parents, teachers and school principals on the outstanding achievement of the young writers, who had worked diligently and consistently to produce creative pieces of which they could be proud. He also commented that such enthusiasm, interest and level of commitment shown by his young students augurs well for the future of literature and creativity in County Clare.