Students from Mary Immaculate Secondary have taken part in this competition for the past number of years under the guidance of Ms. Bradshaw.
Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking competition for post-primary school students across the island of Ireland. The late Seamus Heaney was a significant supporter of the competition. In 2009, he was presented with the David Cohen Prize for Literature by the British Library. In addition to the main award, the winner of this prize each year nominates the recipient of a subsidiary prize. In nominating Poetry Aloud for the award, Seamus Heaney cited the extraordinary way in which the competition seeks to celebrate the joy of speaking and listening to poetry as well as the fact that there is a strong North-South dimension to the competition.
The Poetry Aloud competition has three categories: junior, intermediate and senior. In November 2018 Ailbhe Haran and Emily Cullinan reached the semi-finals competed alongside 125 participants from 82 schools nationwide in the semi-final.
Speaking at the semi-final, Brid O’Sullivan of the NLI’s Learning and Outreach Department, said: “Poetry Aloud aims to celebrate the art of poetry speaking and nurture the talented second-level students who practice it. This year, the prescribed poems and anthologies draw on a wide range of emotions and moments in Irish life and they have been truly brought to life by the participants. We are delighted to have welcomed students from Mary immaculate to the NLI to participate in the semi-final and would like to extend our congratulations to all for making it this far.”