Patrick Henry, a third year pupil at St Aloysius College, Athlone was last week honoured for reaching the final of the 2014 John West Fantasy Writing Competition - beating nearly 10,000 other schoolchildren in the process.
Patrick was presented with a personalised silver bookmark at a ceremony in The Mansion House, Dublin recently. His story, ‘The Greatest Gift’ was shortlisted in the Junior Secondary category.
Having won a place in the inner chamber of Newgrange Passage Tomb on December 21, the protagonist is whisked through time and space to another dimension. There he meets Fionn and Fineagas fishing. When cooking their catch, the boy bursts a blister on the salmon’s skin and sucks his burnt thumb to ease the pain. Was it the Salmon of Knowledge?!
The judges said, “Beautiful descriptions and a story well told”, Patrick’s teacher at St Aloysius College is Sarah Maree.
The competition judges were Shane Hegarty, June Caldwell, and Grainne Byrne.
