A Mayo mother of six, Una Leavy from Charlestown, was the winner of the inaugural TNCC children’s playwright competition.
Leavy was announced after a nationwide search for new writing talent for children’s theatre in Ireland.
According to the judges Leavy’s entry contained all of the qualities, such as originality, imagination, and flair, that they were looking for. Most importantly they also considered how the story would appeal to children up to 10 years of age. Leavy took early retirement last September from her job as a primary school principal, having taught for over 30 years.
She has been writing since she was a child and it was during her time as a teacher that she honed her writing skills by writing and producing a number of plays for the schoolchildren which were performed for their parents. Her poems have been published in several anthologies including ‘Island of the Children’ and ‘Hello, New’. She has had nine children’s books published, including The O’Brien Book of Irish Fairy Tales and Legends and Goodbye, Pappa (Orchard Books ). The competition was open to all writers 18 years and over and Leavy was awarded the overall prize of €1,000 for her winning entry.
