Budding authors honoured by The Champion

THIS year’s Clare Champion Short Story Competition featured a wealth of talent and a myriad of topics full of adventure and intrigue, mystery and mayhem, which were rewarded at a ceremony in Ennis recently.
The competition, now in its fifth year, was described by Clare Champion editor, Austin Hobbs as akin to the tradition of The Arabian Nights, as the stories continue to flow presenting new ideas fresh from the imaginations of secondary school pupils across the county and South Galway.
In the short history of the competition, The Clare Champion has received more than 1,000 stories from young writers and has broadened to include readings by the winning authors at the Ennis Book Club Festival.
This year’s competition was judged by former county librarian, Noel Crowley and storyteller and writer Eddie Lenihan along with Clare Champion journalists, Jessica Quinn and Nicola Corless, who chose the 12 finalists from a bundle of 200-plus entries.
Chosen as this year’s winner in the senior category was Orla Hennessy, a fifth-year pupil at Rice College, Ennis, who has built on previous successes having won the junior category in 2009. She has been shortlisted four times.
She chose the Pacific side of the Second World War as the setting for her story, Fallen. “It’s basically the story of two men at war and one of the men is very young. He is only 18 and the other one is older but only by three years but he feels a lot older because of how long he has been there. The younger one actually dies and it’s about how this affects the older man and how he can never forget how the war destroyed so many lives,” Orla explained.
She said her story came about after watching a programme on the history channel about the war in the Pacific.
“I think the competition is really good because it encourages people to write, especially those who get shortlisted. A friend of mine is shortlisted and I read his story last year and his story this year and even the difference in the standard between the two is huge because he got that boost of confidence,” she added.
Winner of the junior category was first-time entrant Ruth O’Dea of Kilrush Community School who took an interesting take on a much-loved fairytale.
Rather than telling the story of Little Red Riding Hood as we all know it, There are Two Sides to Every Story tells the story from the wolf’s perspective.
“There was this book I read and it was about the wolf and how he’s portrayed as the bad guy in every story, in Little Red Riding Hood and in The Three Little Pigs and I got my idea from that and just made it my own,” Ruth explained.
Taking second place in the senior category was Róisín Nestor of Scoil Mhuire, Ennistymon whose story, A Teenager’s Guide to Life, takes a satirical approach to the stereotypes associated with teenagers.
“It’s about how everyone sees teenagers and I wanted to make a joke about it. The story is based on some of my life and some typical examples of teenagers,” she explained.
Scooping second place in the junior category was Nick Stefanovic from St Flannan’s College, who returned to the shortlist for a second time this year. His story Real Life took a different take on the phrase ‘money can’t buy happiness’.
“I decided to reverse the phrase and make it happiness can’t buy money. It is about a pill that was invented that whenever people recalled happy memories, they would end up with money in their pocket. The main character decided not to take the pill and it is a story of his observations of the world as it changes. There is not much action in the story, it’s more about what he feels,” Nick explained.
Joint third prize in the senior category was awarded to first time entrants, Killian O’Dwyer of CBS, Ennistymon and Kate Ní Mhurchú of Gaelcoláiste an Chláir.

Killian’s story, After You Died tells the story of a woman whose mother dies but as her mother left the family 20 years previously, she isn’t saddened by her death. However, when clearing out her mother’s house, she discovers a box of letters and photographs the mother had written to her but never sent.

Kate’s story is set in the American south and tells the tale of an older woman battling Alzheimer’s.
“I had a phrase that I wanted to put in the story and it just came from there. She’s in a nursing home and she’s a writer and she loves writing stories and there is one story in particular that she didn’t finish. It’s a story that the nurse and everyone is taken with it really wants her to finish but she needs to get her memory back to finish it,” Kate explained.
Evan McDonagh of St Patrick’s Comprehensive School in Shannon took third place in the junior category with his story Surprisingly Cuddly, a tale of a rescued cat who is in bad condition but is cared for by his rescuer. However, strangely, this pet is fonder of cheese than sardines and is not bothered by being dipped in water. A trip to work at a local restaurant presents the revelation that this cat is not what it seems.
In addition to the overall winners, highly commended awards were given in the senior category to Laura Mather and Hannah Ryan, both of Rice College, Ennis and in the junior category to Niamh Keady-Tabbal and Mary Murphy, both of Seamount College, Kinvara and to Amanda Honan of St Joseph’s Community College, Kilkee.

Go to the Living homepage to read more short stories.