Artists in Creative Enterprise

Promoting the Written and Verbal Arts

ACE  Flagship Project

 

Read our online newssheet and Australia for regular updates about new opportunities in the creative arts through participation in ACE projects. From 1 March 2008, additional ARTS NEWS IN BRIEF about Projects, Workshops, Readings, Books, Films, Plays, Festivals & Competitions etc., ... can be accessed at www.creativewritersnetwork.org or through your local community arts officer.

 

ARTS NEWS IN BRIEF ... in February 2008, ACE launched a new and innovative written & verbal arts project titled: Notes, in six schools and colleges in Counties Donegal and Derry. The project is designed to provide a new opportunity for young people aged 14 to 17 years to participate in a programme of creative writing and storytelling with a particular focus on promoting positive mental health and well-being. The Notes project, which will also run in communities for young people aged 18 to 25 years, is funded and supported respectively by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in the Republic of Ireland, and the Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) in Northern Ireland. More news updates on Notes to follow soon ...

 

ARTS NEWS IN BRIEF ... WordFlight - a new book of prose and poetry by 100 emerging young writers from across Ireland, Britain, Europe and the USA, is now on sale priced ten euros in select bookshops. Alternatively, you could purchase copies of the book direct from the publisher, The Stoners' Press, Creeveoughter, Rathmullan, Donegal. Proceeds from book sales will be gifted to the Aisling Project  www.aisling.org.uk to assist homeless Irishmen to return to Ireland for a holiday.

 

ARTS NEWS IN BRIEF ... 3100 young people across Ireland, Britain, Europe, the Middle East, and in the USA took part in WordFlight. Here is a listing of some of the main events taking place during the project.

It was lights, camera, action for the children of St. Aengus N.S., Bridge End, Donegal on Tuesday 23 October 2007, when RTE television filmed WordFlight's 'Overall Winning Writer' Niamh McMullan read her poem, together with fellow pupils and published writers, Charlie Lavery and Stephen O'Donnell. Inishowen's new young literary talent will be featured on a forthcoming RTE News2day report for children's daytime t.v. Patrick Kearney, Pamela Brown, and Abbey Oliveira also took part in the performance readings, and were interviewed by RTE about facilitating WordFlight this past year.

Young Inishowen writers performed their prose and poetry live on Inishowen Community Radio on Tuesday 18 Sept. 2007. The WordFlight 'Overall Winner', Niamh McMullan  from St. Aengus N.S., Bridge End; Codie Crumlish, Monica Capillanes, Tanya Crumlish and Clodagh Ni Bhroin, St. Patrick's Girl's N.S., Carndonagh; and Rosie Faulkner, Diarmuid Carlin, Peter Wilson, and Joseph Murray, Moville Community College, did themselves, their parents, teachers and their schools proud through their confident and entertaining performances in the company of the writer, Patrick Kearney.

As part of the main 4th Centenary Commemorations of the Flight of the Earls, ACE and Associated Partners performed prose and poetry from the newly-published book, WordFlight, onboard the Jeanie Johnston famine ship, on Lough Swilly, Rathmullan, Co.Donegal. Poets, writers, and storytellers, Patrick Kearney, Pamela Brown, Justine Kearney, and Joe Brennan, read a selection of the 99 young writers published in WordFlight (1st Ed.) to commemorate the 99 who fled into exile from Rathmullan four hundred years ago to the day -  the 14th Sept. 1607. A commemorative copy of WordFlight was gifted to the captain and crew of the ship.

On 10 Sept. 2007, on Ireland's Northwest leading radio station, Highland Radio, the writer Patrick Kearney read on air the WordFlight 'Overall Winner's' poem, by ten year-old, Niamh McMullan, a pupil at St. Aengus N.S., Bridge End, Donegal. On Tuesday 18 Sept. 2007, published young writers from Inishowen schools involved with WordFlight, will be reading their prose and poetry on air with Inishowen Community Radio FM.

Young Donegal Writer Scoops Top Prize at WordFlight’s Literary Showcase Celebrations ...

Ten year-old, Niamh McMullan, a pupil at St. Aengus N.S., Bridge End, Donegal, scooped the ‘Overall Winner’s’ prize of a new laptop computer and accessories for her poem that she wrote when taking part in the WordFlight Young People’s Written & Verbal Arts Project. Niamh was also placed first in the 8 to 10 year old category, and collected an additional €100 cash prize. The prizes were presented to Niamh and 98 other young writers during the WordFlight Literary Showcase Event at An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny, on the night of Saturday, 8 September, 2007.

Patrick Kearney, writer and director with Artists in Creative Enterprise, who managed and delivered WordFlight, said: ‘Niamh was one of 3000 young people aged 8 to 17 years across Ireland, Britain, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA, who participated in WordFlight. The project was designed to encourage young people to connect with this year’s commemorations of the Flight of the Earls, and to use the Flight as a focal point to explore, through creative writing and storytelling, their own experiences and imaginings of loss and new beginnings. Their literary gift was celebrated through the deserving book launch, prize-giving, and readings by award-winning and published poets, Pamela Brown, Abby Oliveira, Jenni Doherty, and Melanie Bradley. The showcase event also marked a new beginning for the published young writers in the written and verbal arts.’

The International Fund for Ireland, Donegal County Council, Dungannon and S. Tyrone Borough Council, and Excellence in Cities, funded WordFlight. Sponsorship was received from An Grianan Theatre, Donegal Stationery, Eason Books, Cyberworld Computers, and Artists in Creative Enterprize. Prizes to the value of €2500 were presented to the writers during the showcase event, which was attended by 350 children, parents, teachers, youth leaders, and guest speakers, among them the Donegal County Manager, Michael McLoone, Letterkenny Town Mayor, Jean Crossan, and Denis Rooney, Chairman of the International Fund for Ireland  

Other writers from the 8 - 10 years category who collected main prizes at the showcase event, included, Aoife McBride, Scoil Mhuire gan Smal N.S., Letterkenny (2nd); Shaquille Hanley, Claremount P.S., Manchester (3rd); Stiofan Ó Ceallacháin, Carrick N.S., Donegal (4th).  Writers aged 11 - 13 years were, Éilis Nic Lochlainn, Carrick N.S., Donegal (1st); Tanya Crumlish, St. Patrick’s Girls’ N.S., Carndonagh, Donegal (2nd);  Samuel McCarthy, Navan, Co. Meath (3rd);  Eilish McGinley, Cashel N.S., Donegal (4th). Writers aged 14 - 17 years were, Ekaterina Karabasheva, Sofia , Bulgaria (1st & 3rd); Conor McDermott, Moville Community College , Moville, Donegal (2nd); Sarah Kiely, Letterkenny Youth Information Centre, Donegal (4th).

The following poem by Niamh McMullan scooped ‘Overall Winner’s’ prize:

Untitled

My Uncle Jason moved away

a few years ago.

He’s over in Boston at the minute.

There is a lot of snow.

I think it was a big jump

for him when really young.

But now I think

he has moved on.

I think it was an experience

for him to move away.

I go to my granny’s house and

on the phone we talk to him each Tuesday.

I would love to go to Boston,

and to see him.

I could play and talk all day,

just me and him.

 

The WordFlight Literary Panel, David Gothard, Associate Artist with the Abbey Theatre, Dublin; Clionagh Boyle, Head of Derry City's Children's Commission; and Traolach ó Fionnáin, Donegal County Council Arts Officer, met on the 26 May 2007 at the Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny, County Donegal, to select 30 winning writers and an overall winner from the 90 short-listed from 2300 prose and poetry submissions received by the 30 April 2007. Nine other long-listed writers were chosen by ACE for publication.

WordFlight Diary - Highlights

  • 100 young people published and celebrated during the WordFlight Literary Showcase Event in September 2007 as Donegal and the rest of Europe commemorates the 'Flight of the Earls'.

  • 2395 young people aged 8 to 17 years of age participated in WordFlight Creative Writing Workshops or associated workshops in schools, colleges, and youth centres in Donegal, Derry, Tyrone, Manchester (GB), and Baltimore, MD, USA. Workshops were available free of financial cost to providers.

  • Another 700 young people participated in WordFlight directly via letter and email.

  • 2300 poems, short stories and songs received from across Ireland, Britain, c. Europe, USA, and the Middle East for Entry to WordFlight. Entry to the project was free. Short stories were not to exceed 1200 words in length. All entries had to be original and not previously published.

  • 240 entries long-listed.

  • 90 entries short-listed for the attention of the Literary Panel who met on the 26 May 2007 in Donegal to select thirty winning entrants including one overall project winner.

  • 1st to 10th placed winning entrants for prose, poetry and song short-listed from each of the three age categories, 8-10; 11-13; 14-17; and an overall project winning entrant will be announced in September 2007 at a 'Literary Prize-giving Showcase Event' in Donegal, and on this website.

WordFlight was designed and managed by Artists in Creative Enterprise (ACE), a collective of experienced and published writers, and artistic directors. The writer, Patrick Kearney, said: ‘WordFlight is a unique project in more ways than one. It not only involves young people on a cross-community, cross-border basis on the island of Ireland but also extends to young people in other countries. It is an international event. Just as the Flight of the Earls was an international event. And with the story of the Earls essentially being about loss and new beginnings, young people entering WordFlight are encouraged to write about losing or finding something or someone important, be it a friend, parent, home, identity, faith, opportunity, peace, and so on. Young people entering the event can write about anything, as long as it links to the themes of loss and new beginnings. In their flight from Rathmullan in 1607, the loss of land, family, friends, neighbours, and dreams were not just painfully experienced by the last Earls of Ireland, but equally by their children, both those who fled into exile too, and those left behind in the panic. However, given the constant reality of life’s push and pull, the Earls and their children experienced a sense of excited adventure for what lay ahead of them. Hopes of new beginnings were not entirely lost to them in their darkest hour, at least not in their individual and collective imaginings. Participation in WordFlight by young people will enable them to engage the experience of the Flight of the Earls as a source of inspiration to use prose, poetry, and song to explore and storytell their own experiences, thoughts, and imaginings. More information about the Flight, can be accessed at Donegal County Council's new website www.flightoftheearls.ie WordFlight will demonstrate and affirm that there is more to unite young people through the commonly-shared experiences of loss and new beginnings, than exists to divide them. This reality marked and celebrated through WordFlight will, on an international scale, contribute to peace and reconciliation amongst young people. WordFlight will erode inter-community and cross-community tensions, racism, prejudice, and bullying, and remove barriers to new opportunities in lifelong learning. WordFlight will, given received support, culminate in a Literary Showcase Event in September 2007 in Donegal, the epicentre of the 4th Centenary Commemorations of the Flight of the Earls. Ultimately, it is anticipated that WordFlight will stimulate an annual young people’s literary event within County Donegal, with linkages made to other art events both within and beyond the county. ACE and partners call upon young people, parents, teachers, and youth leaders internationally, to become involved in WordFlight. To use WordFlight as an opportunity to creatively express what it is like to be young and growing up in the world today. Like the next centenary of the Flight of the Earls such an opportunity will be a long time coming around again. So don’t miss this unique chance to successfully launch yourself into the creative arts.'

WordFlight - participating schools, colleges, and youth organisations etc.

County Derry

Bishop Street Community Centre, Derry City

St. Brigid's College, Carnhill

 

County Donegal

Brown Knowe N.S. Ramelton

Buncrana Library

Carndonagh Library

Carrick N.S.

Cashel N.S. Glencolumbcille

Convoy Joint N.S.

Dunkineely N.S.

Falcarragh Community School

Gweedore Library

Kilcar N.S.

Killaghtee N.S.

Letterkenny Library

Letterkenny Youth Information Centre

Loreto Community College Milford

Meenaneary N.S.

Milford Library

Moville Community College

Scoil Bhride N.S. Convoy

Scoil Naomh Brid Muff 

St. Aengus N.S. Bridge End

St. Garvan's N.S. Rathmullan

St. Joseph's N.S. Rathmullan

St. Patrick's N.S. Lurgeybrack, Letterkenny

St. Patrick's Girls' N.S. Carndonagh

Ramelton Library

 

County Tyrone

Clinty Clay P.S. Dungannon

Holy Family P.S. Cookstown

St. Ciaran's High School Ballygawley

St. Mary's P.S. Ballygawley

St. Mary's Girls' P.S. Strabane

 

Britain

Claremount P.S. Manchester

Heald Place P.S. Manchester

Holy Name P.S. Manchester

Plymouth P.S. Manchester

Rolls Crescent P.S. Manchester

St. Phillips P.S. Manchester

St. Wilfrid's P.S. Manchester

 

USA

Canton Middle School, Baltimore, MD

Columbia Academy, Columbia, MD

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