WEST Belfast schoolboy Jack Monaghan has been crowned the winner of the ‘Poetry Aloud’ award.
Jack – who is 13 next week – competed with over 300 competitors from across Ireland and emerged victorious in the Junior category.
The Year 9 student won the award after he gave two poetry performances at the event – ‘The Gift of Time’ by Tony Curtis and ‘Watch Your Step, I’m Drenched’ by Adrian Mitchell.
Mum Sinead is delighted at Jack's achievement and told the Andersonstown News: “I am so proud beyond belief, I actually don’t think Jack understands how big an achievement this is for him, he is going to look back in years to come and think how fantastically he did.
“Myself and Tony (Jack’s father) were very impressed at how composed Jack was and how he took the whole experience in his stride. We would like to thank Mr McAteer and Mrs Madden from De La Salle College for supporting Jack and a special thank you to Bríd O'Sullivan from the National Library of Ireland (NLI) for her support on the day.”
Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking contest open to all post-primary students on the island of Ireland. It is organised by NLI and Poetry Ireland/Éigse Éireann in collaboration with University College Cork.
This year’s competition was the first since 2020 to be held at NLI, which expressed its “joy” at welcoming students back to Dublin.
A spokesperson said: “Having the students back in the library after running the competition virtually since 2020 is a joy for us, and we are delighted to welcome the students, their teachers and parents back to the NLI.”
