A STUDENT from St Michael’s Holy Faith secondary school in Finglas has claimed runner up prize in a prestigious poetry competition.
Jodie Milne was runner up in the Intermediate category of the eighth annual Poetry Aloud competition.
It’s not the first time St Michael’s has tasted success in the competition. Fifth year student Shauna Hession won a senior title last year.
Poetry Aloud is organised by the National Library of Ireland and Poetry Ireland.
Results of Poetry Aloud – open to post-primary school students across Ireland – were announced on Friday December 5 at the National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
This year there were over 1,700 entries from across the country.
For the event, Poetry Aloud partnered with RTE television’s flagship arts show The Works, RTE Radio One’s The John Murray Show and RTE’s A Poem for Ireland, The Best-Loved Irish Poem of the Last 100 Years.
Finalists and winners from this year’s competition will appear on The Works reading a selection of Ireland’s best-loved poems.
The Poetry Aloud competition comprises three stages; the regionals, the semi-finals and the final.
Over 118 schools took part in the competition at 18 heats in venues across the country.
A national winner was chosen from across three categories; Junior, Intermediate and Senior.
Winners of each category received a prize of
?¬300.
Book tokens to the value of
?¬300 were also presented to each winning school.
The 2014 judging panel included poet Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill, Director of the Abbey Theatre, Fiach Mac Conghail, and Director of Poetry Ireland, Maureen Kennelly.
The overall winner of the competition was awarded the Seamus Heaney Poetry Aloud Award, a cash prize of
?¬500, and a trophy designed by Meath-based sculptor Fiona Smith-Darragh.
This year, the award was given to Megan Nar from St Louis Secondary School in Monaghan.
Speaking at the final, Brid O’Sullivan of Learning and Outreach at the National Library of Ireland (NLI) said the stardard of entries was excellent.
“We are delighted to welcome the participants from Dublin to NLI once again this year to celebrate the joy of speaking poetry.
“It is a wonderful achievement to reach the final, especially considering the huge number of entries received.
“We would like to give hearty congratulations to Jodie and Conor, and all the finalists.
“We truly hope they have thoroughly enjoyed their experience.
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The Poetry Aloud competition first started in 2006 and gained significant support from poet Seamus Heaney.
In 2009, Heaney was presented by the British Library with the David Cohen Prize for Literature, and nominated Poetry Aloud for a subsidiary prize, citing the way in which the competition sought to celebrate the joy of the spoken word.