Coláiste Ailigh student Aisling Ni Shiadháil is rehearsing her verses for the national final of the popular Poetry Aloud competition tomorrow.
The Letterkenny pupil had successfully competed in the semi-final of the ninth annual contest, organised by the National Library of Ireland (NLI) and Poetry Ireland.
She will now proceed to the national final, which will take place in the National Library of Ireland in Dublin tomorrow, 1st December. The event will see 31 students from across the country compete in the junior, intermediate and senior categories for the Seamus Heaney Poetry Aloud Award.
Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking competition for post-primary school students across the island of Ireland and was launched in 2006 as Yeats Aloud, becoming Poetry Aloud in 2007. Since then, it has grown enormously from just a few hundred entries to 1,800 entries in 2017.
Aisling saw off competition from participants who travelled from schools nationwide and will compete in tomorrow’s final in the intermediate category. Each category winner will receive €300 as well as book tokens to the value of €300 for the winner’s school library. An overall winner will be chosen from the three category winners and will receive a further €200, the Seamus Heaney perpetual trophy and a book.
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