A NEW anthology of writings from a broad range of local scribes has been published by Irish medium youth and community organisation, Glór na Móna.
The digital 'Sólás ón Scáth' booklet, which contains a selection of short stories and poems, was produced as part of the organisation's Scríbhneoirí an tSléibhe community writing programme.
Over twelve weeks, participants shared their stories through memoir, testimonial, fiction, poetry, song and script – creating a communal healing place through their writing.
The work was compiled and edited by renowned local poet, Dr Scott McKendry, and launched during Féile an Phobail.
The event saw a number of brave participants deliver their work to a live audience under the stars at Gael-Ionad Mhic Goill.
Dr McKendry, who helped coordinate the programme, said: "It was great for people during Covid.
"I had to gauge what people wanted because there were different levels of writers, but after a while I realised that there was some unbelievable work getting brought in. People were able to talk about a whole range of things including mental health and physical health. It just made it that wee bit more human.
"People were inspired and they were getting to know each other, and it was something everybody was looking forward to."
Reflecting on the anthology, Dr McKendry described the writing as "amazing".
"The writing was very good. It was a community workshop, so the writing wasn't trying to be amazing, it's just to get people writing.
"You had some people there who had been writing for years, and you had some people who had never tried to have anything published. I kept telling them that their stuff was very good – they had no idea, they just had a bit of an interest and it was just a bit of a chance for them."
He added: "I was very impressed with the quality of by any standard of judging it."
