BELATED congratulations to Aoife Fitzgerald of St Michael’s Holy Faith Secondary School in Finglas who won the Junior Category of the all-island Poetry Aloud competition 2013.
Organised by Poetry Ireland and the National Library of Ireland, Poetry Aloud celebrates the joy of speaking and listening to poems and St Michael’s Holy Faith students are becoming experts at it.
In 2012 Shauna Hession from Owensilla in Ballymun was presented with the Seamus Heaney perpetual trophy and a cash prize after coming tops in the competition.
A few days before this year’s final, Shauna was interviewed on the
‘Sean O’Rourke Show’ on RTE Radio 1 and in a touching gesture a local woman called to the school with a card for the budding poet as a thank-you for making her feel proud to be from Finglas.
And on December 8 Aoife Fitzgerald became the latest St Michael’s Holy Faith pupil to be recognised for her talent in the completion when she was declared 2013 winner of the Junior Category.
Aoife was among 31 finalists from all over Ireland who competed in a day-long event judged by Maureen Kennelly, Director of Poetry Ireland, Peter Sirr, poet and translator and Carmel Naughton of The Naughton Foundation.
Poetry Aloud was launched seven years ago as a competition for post-primary school pupils. It initially attracted just a few hundred entries but interest has grown enormously and the 2013 competition attracted 1,500 entries from schools north and south.