Readers and Writers Week 2011 ended on a high on Friday, 28th October with a truly magical visit from renowned Irish storyteller Niall De Burca. In two sessions over the course of the morning, all the students and teachers in the school were treated to mesmerising and sometimes terrifying (!) storytelling. The visit brought the week's activities to a fitting end - a week where students have encountered many writers and storytellers including Denise Deegan, Martina Devlin, Amy Huberman and Roisin Ingle. Congratulations must go to Ms Morrissey for organising this successful event. Thanks also to her wonderful team who helped out every day. Well done also to all the students (and teachers!) who dressed up as their favourite literary characters in order to raise money for Loreto Rumbek.
Reports from Aoife Datta and Rebecca Geary (Senior Website Reporters):
Denise Deegan- Readers and Writers Week
Denise Deegan was welcomed to our school on Wednesday 26th October as part of Readers and Writers’ week terrific line-up of authors. Denise Deegan is author of five best-selling novels ‘Do You Want What I Want?’, ‘ Love Comes Tumbling’, ‘Time in A Bottle’, ‘Turning Turtle’ and teenage fiction ‘And By The Way’. Her sixth novel ‘And For Your Information’ was published recently and has already been shortlisted for an Irish Book Award.
Denise Deegan’s talk was insightful and entertaining as well as offering some helpful advice to all those 4th Years interested in becoming writers. She spoke about how as a teen she wasn’t the best English student, but from an early age has had a deep-love of story –telling which influence her throughout her life. She also spoke about how looking for stories in everyday mundane situations can really help you with inspiration as a writer. A unique aspect of her talk was the involvement of the girls throughout. She got the whole of her audience to participate in creative exercises. One that stood out in particular was an exercise where the girls were to invent a new school teacher, then record all the items that fall out of their bag. This really got all the girls thinking and creating, a fitting way to involve everyone in an author’s creative process. Denise Deegan was a delight to have in the school and we really hope she’ll visit again in the future.
A Visit from Judy May
On Monday 24th October in conjunction with Readers and Writers week, 5th Years were treated to a talk from Judy May. Having had her visit once before in 1st Year, we were all eager for her return knowing full well what an extraordinary public speaker she is.
Judy has published teen books including ‘Copper Girl’, ‘Hazel Wood Girl’ and ‘Blue Lavender Girl’. She is currently living between Paris and Washington travelling the world teaching life coaches to achieve their own goals of working successfully in the industry. She’s appeared on many television shows around the world including several on BBC, Sky and Fox and has been featured in many publications including Cosmopolitan and The Times.
When we saw her again, she didn’t disappoint, shying away from the English and creative writing side of her speech she focused on how to make your life interesting, fun and rewarding. Keeping all the 5th Years engaged she chatted about how to make the most of opportunities, with her own personal experiences and anecdotes interjecting throughout. Judy May was certainly a welcome treat and an insightful way to break up our school day.
Readers & Writers Week – Martina Devlin
Today, Tuesday the 25th October, Martina Devlin came to our school to speak to 3rd Year students as part of the annual Readers & Writers Week 2011. Martina is a renowned author and journalist who grew up in Omagh and attended a Loreto School in her area. She studied in Trinity College and later moved to London to work on Fleet Street, where she practised her trade as a journalist. She is now a columnist for the Irish Independent and the Sunday World magazine. Martina came to talk to 3rd Years about her novel ‘Ship of Dreams’. This fictional tale is based around the sinking of the Titanic – the centenary of the disaster will be marked next April. Martina pointed out that in order to write fiction, you must include some account of facts in order to give the story a structure and to make it more believable. She was inspired to write about the Titanic after she researched her family history and found that her grandmother’s uncle, Thomas O’ Brien, died on the Titanic on his way to visit his four sisters living in Chicago. He set off on a journey to a promising new life in America with his girlfriend Hannah, who ended up safely getting on one of the last lifeboats on the ship. In order to write this fictional account of the Titanic, Martina had to do a lot of research about the ship and the time period that was being dealt with. She couldn’t change the events of the Titanic; she had to stick to the history of the event, but she had plenty of freedom to do what she desired with her characters. She read newspaper reports and novels of 1912 to get a sense of what language was used back in that day and pick up on what slang was used at the time. She even researched the names of all the victims who died on the Titanic, in order to select names for her characters that would suit that time period. A lot of hard work went into writing this novel and now it has finally paid off as she presented her successful novel ‘Ship of Dreams’ to the group of students. Martina Devlin is just one speaker among the many interesting people who provided us with wonderful literary knowledge as part of Readers and Writers week.
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