Waterford school among winners of all-island poetry competition

A student from Presentation Secondary School, Waterford has been announced among the winners of Poetry Aloud, the competition which promotes the joy of speaking and listening to poetry amongst post-primary students across the island of Ireland. 

Organised by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) and Poetry Ireland, and supported by UCC, the competition for 2021, in which students spoke a number of different poems, took place virtually because of the pandemic, but the winners were presented with their prizes in person in the surroundings of the WB Yeats Library at the NLI.  

Charley Fitzgerald from Presentation Secondary School, Waterford has been named the winner in the Intermediate category of the prestigious competition.

Alice Mackle from St Patrick’s Academy, Dungannon in Tyrone was named as winner of the Junior category and also Overall Winner. 

The competition has been putting poetry to the forefront of students’ minds since 2007. It has three categories: junior, intermediate, and senior. At the ceremony in the National Library of Ireland, the students each spoke a poem of their own choosing: Tirzah Hutchinson Edgar selected WB Yeats’ ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’; Charley Fitzgerald selected DH Lawrence’s ‘Piano’; Jake O’Loughlin chose Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’; and Alice Mackle chose ‘All the World’s a Stage’, by William Shakespeare. 

The winner is presented with the Poetry Aloud trophy. Students are presented with cash prizes and each winning school receives €300 in book tokens for their school library. 

Commenting, Bríd O’Sullivan of the NLI’s Exhibitions, Learning & Programming Department said: 

“Poetry is a most wonderful art form and Poetry Aloud aims to celebrate poetry speaking and understanding among second-level students. The NLI holds the manuscripts of some of Ireland’s most celebrated poets and it is wonderful to hear students bring poems to life. The competition has always been a highlight of the NLI’s year and we were delighted to welcome our award-winners back to the NLI in person this year. 

“Once again, the volume and standard of applications was excellent. I would like to thank all of those who took part and to congratulate our winners. I hope that poetry will continue to play a big part in their lives.” 

2021 full list of winners: 

Senior Category 

Winner: Tirzah Hutchinson Edgar, The High School, Rathgar, Dublin. 

Runner-Up: Zoe Ncube, Presentation Secondary School, Tralee, Co Kerry. 

Intermediate Category

Winner: Charley Fitzgerald, Presentation Secondary School, Waterford. 

Runner-Up: Jake O’Loughlin, The High School, Rathgar, Dublin. 

Junior Category 

Winner: Alice Mackle St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, Co Tyrone. 

Joint Runners-Up: Jack Monaghan, De La Salle College, Belfast, Co Antrim / Mikayla O’Sullivan, Presentation Secondary School, Tralee, Co Kerry.  

Overall Winner 2021 

Alice Mackle St Patrick's Academy, Dungannon, Co Tyrone.