Munster Express Online

Last Saturday as part of the Sean Dunne Literary Festival at Greyfriars Gallery twenty local teenagers read from their new work and what an enjoyable marathon it was with the reading lasting for approx. 1.5 hours. Indeed the packed hall seemed to work in shifts with people coming and going halfway through. The readers are all part of the Waterford Youth Arts creative writing classes held every Saturday for 12 weeks under the tutorage of young writer Eimear Cheasty. Eimear pointed out in her introduction that the course was originally started over ten years ago by the late Jim Daly and that she was humbled to carry on his good work.

Indeed a lot of what we heard and saw on Saturday was very good work with my own highlights being the performance poetry of Brendan Murphy read very well by his brother Liam. Among the four poems read was possibly the shortest poem ever which greeted the thought of a new day. Another comic piece was by Emma Power which was the story of the Butchers son who had a fear of blood and while his father was sure he would carry on the family butchering business he instead wanted to do art – to his father and mothers utter disgust. A very funny reading with the inclusion of both the father (played by Pat O’Connor) and the mother (Eimear Cheasty) providing the voices offstage.

On the dramatic front we had a very touching short story by young writer Clare Meskill which dealt with a young girls sense of loss and the finale ‘4 Miles High’ provided by the writing of Martina Collender and acted by local young actors Sinead Bolger and Kealon Foley with a smaller role for James Rockett which explored the aftermath of a car crash involving two young people. This piece of drama was very strong but was a little over sentimental in parts. Again another young writer to watch for the future.

Another two young talented young people are the twins Killian and Darragh Browne who are a creative team, one writes and the other illustrates. Their piece was funny, exciting and very imaginative.

Full marks must go to Eimear Cheasty who has obviously supported and challenged the young people to arrive at this point in their development and also lots of praise must go to the funders of such a worthwhile project namely Poetry Ireland and the Sean Dunne Literary Festival. Space prevents me from giving the full group a critique but suffice to say the I was very impressed with the talent on view and wish all the writers well in their future progress. The full group who read their work were: Max Lawlor, Meghan Barry, Sophie Rowe, Clare Meskill, Meg Stokes, Emma Power, Oisin McElhinney, Liam Murphy, Rubin Hennessy, Caoilfhionn Hanton, Jo Wright, Killian Browne, Darragh Browne, Paul Malone, Rachel Brazil, Elaine Stone, Oisin Hennessy, Brendan Murphy, Emma Kidney and Martina Collender.