.
Donagh McMahon of Mercy Mounthawk.
THE Monsignor O’Flaherty Memorial Weekend just took place in Killarney and part of the event was a schools’ literary competition.
The winners were announced recently and students from Mercy Mounthawk in Tralee and Ardfert NS emerged as winners.
In the Primary Schools category, students were invited to write a short essay on how Hugh O’Flaherty’s humanitarian beliefs could be applied to today’s world. Two prizes were on offer i.e., Winning Essay for the individual student and Best Collective Entries for the school.
Continued below…
.
Sean Thibeaud of Ardfert NS.
The winning Primary School Essay came from Sean Thibeaud from Ardfert National School. The adjudicators were greatly impressed by his essay, commenting; “Msgr. Hugh’s heroism shines through this insightful young boy’s eyes and thoughts. We can all live by Sean’s suggestion “We can all be a Hugh O Flaherty”, God Has no Country and there are no borders in life so why should there be walls?”.
The adjudicators considered the entries from Ardfert National School to be the best in terms of content and presentation and so meriting the Best Collective Entries title for 2016.
Students in 2nd Level schools were invited to submit a poem on the theme of Humanitarianism. The winning entry in this category came from Donagh McMahon, Mercy Mounthawk in Tralee.
The adjudicators considered the standard of entries for 2016 to be of high quality but they unanimously decided that Donagh’s poem titled “Man’s Achilles Heels”, was the clear winner.
In their comments they said; “It is the effort and work the poet has put in to finding the right words and the remarkable range and use of vocabulary throughout which makes this poem stand above all the others”.
The winner will be presented with the “Fr Pat Horgan Perpetual Trophy for Poetry”, which was introduced this year to commemorate the late Fr Pat Horgan who was one of the founders and main drivers behind the Hugh O’Flaherty Memorial Society.
The Trophy was designed by the O’Flaherty Memorial sculptor, Alan Ryan Hall, from Valentia and includes the words of a tribute poem to Monsignor Hugh, written by Fr Pat Horgan in late 2015.
Prizes will be presented to the winning students and school at a ceremony in Killarney Library at 11.00am on Wednesday.
