Adult Competitions Shortlist and Winners

Congratulations to the 2024 Winners and Shortlisted Entries as announced at the recent Literary Lunch and listed below.

In response to many requests, you can now read all the winning entries for this year and the last two years on our Competitions page.

POETRY

FIRST PRIZE – Kim - Frank Farrelly

SECOND PRIZE – Little Big Man - Brian Kirk

SHARED THIRD PRIZE – Blood Pear - Heritage Variety – Elaine Desmond

SHARED THIRD PRIZE – Never Mourned - Liam Boyle

SHORTLIST Bless Me Father for I Have Swimmed – Frankie McPhillips Bog Uncles – Gerry O’Donnell Granduncle – Peggy McCarthy Holy – A M Cousins My mother: laughing – Stella Harvey Birrell Tall Boys – Deidre (Deig) Sullivan The Goldfinch – Mary Melvin Geoghogan The Lime Tree – Padraig McLoughlin The More of Less – Deirdre Hines This and That – Eugene O’Hare

FLASH FICTION

FIRST PRIZE – The Questions – Partridge Boswell

SECOND PRIZE - Sunk – Ciaran Cunningham

THIRD PRIZE - Your Heart’s Right There – Jo Nestor

Highly Commended: Big Top – Rachel Smart Jonah – Seamus Harrington Saltwater – Anne Byrne Such Consolations We Find – Jennifer McMahon Terms and Conditions – Jamie D Stacey Unstable – Fiona McKay White Horses – Ruth Mary O’Shea

Adult Competitions Shortlists and Literary Lunch

Shortlists and winning entries for the 2024 Allingham Poetry and Flash Fiction Competitions have been selected by judges Kate Newmann and Nuala O’Connor. Winners have already been informed and they will read their work at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday 9 November. Shortlistees and winners include:

POETRY

Bless Me Father For I Have Swimmed – Frankie McPhillips

Blood Pear - Heritage Variety – Elaine Desmond

Bog Uncles – Gerry O’Donnell

Granduncle – Peggy McCarthy

Holy – A M Cousins

Kim – Frank Farrelly

Little Big Man – Brian Kirk

My mother: laughing – Stella Harvey Birrell

Never Mourned – Liam Boyle

Tall Boys – Deidre (Deig) Sullivan

The Goldfinch – Mary Melvin Geoghogan

The Lime Tree – Padraig McLoughlin

The More of Less – Deirdre Hines

This and That – Eugene O’Hare

FLASH FICTION

Big Top – Rachel Smart

Jonah – Seamus Harrington

Saltwater – Anne Byrne

Such Consolations We Find – Jennifer McMahon

Sunk – Ciaran Cunningham

Terms and Conditions – Jamie D Stacey

The Questions – Partridge Boswell

Unstable – Fiona McKay

White Horses – Ruth Mary O’Shea

Your Heart’s Right There – Jo Nestor

The Awards Ceremony will take place at the Literary Lunch in the Nirvana Restaurant, Ballyshannon on Saturday, 9 Nov. Admission is free; an optional buffet lunch is available at €20 per ticket.

Noon – Ongoing: Buffet Lunch

12:30 – 1:30: Awards Ceremony

1:30 – 2:00 Book Launch: Pool of Darkenss – Raymond Chandler in Ireland by Tom Sigafoos

And the Schools Winners ARe...

Don't forget to join Patricia Keane on our YouTube Channel tomorrow at 2.30 for the announcement of the results of the Post-Primary Schools competitions. They will also appear here shortly afterwards.

Away with the Fairies - An Audience with William and Helen

Allingham Festival audiences of the last few years have regularly enjoyed interviews conducted by Sinead Crowley, including such highlights as Liz Nugent and Claire Keegan. We are delighted that Sinead has kindly agreed to host a number of events again this year. One of these will be a little different to anything she experienced in her former life as Media Correspondent of RTE.

It seems that somehow William and Helen Allingham will contrive to return to Ballyshannon for one night only to mark this very special Bicentenary Festival. They will talk to Sinead about William’s early days in Ballyshannon and his love of music, Helen’s significant achievements as a watercolourist and the many famous people they mixed with from Thomas Carlyle to Charles Dickens, Hans Christian Andersen and the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. Alfred Lord Tennyson is expected to make a surprise contribution. They may even be persuaded to say a word or two about how Ballyshannon has changed since they were last here.

Most of what will be said will be their own words from diaries, letters and other writings. However, some license will be taken to fit the staged entertainment so strict historical accuracy is not guaranteed.

The chat show format will be enhanced with a slideshow (or Magic Lantern in their words). It may be that in some Allingham festival of the distant future a similar event will be organised using artificial intelligence and avatars in the style of those used for ABBA in a current London production. For now, William and Helen will be channeled by local actors Michael McMullin and Patricia Keane. Renowned musician, Martin McGinley will illustrate William's love of Iriah music and, in a late addition to the cast, Holly McEneaney will appear as Eva Allingham.

The event will take place in Theatre 1 in the Abbey Arts Centre on Saturday, November 9 at 6 PM, Adm €10. It will be finished in plenty of time for those lucky individuals going on to the Muireann Bradley concert in St Anne’s at 8.

A joint production with Ballyshannon Drama Society.

AllingDram

We are delighted to be working with three emerging writers with strong Donegal connections, Shaun Byrne, Kieran Kelly and Gerry Moriarty.
They have each supplied us with a 20-30 minute excerpt from works they have in progress. These will be given a Workshop Production by actors from the Ballyshannon Drama Society. More than a rehearsed reading but short of a full production, this will give a rare chance to see such talented writers display their creations in embryonic stage.

Homegirls by Shaun Byrne, is a historical piece set in St. Joseph’s, Stranorlar in 1932. The cast will present a number of short vignettes from different parts of the play, giving a sense of the whole. Performers include Louise Larkin, Anne-Marie Garvey, Roisin Lee, Diarmuid McInerney and Sean McLoone. It’s directed by Sean McLoone.

The Evicted by Kieran Kelly is based on a true story. Set in Donegal in 1865 with the Derryveagh Evictions as the background. The story is a personal one for Kieran as his ancestors were among the families evicted in 1861. The opening scene of the play will be performed by Ronan Drummond, Callum Gallagher and Joanne Cassidy. The director is Terence McEneaney.

The Priests is Gerry Moriarty’s first play. An Irish priest has retired from a career on the African Missions in Africa to an English parish..A journalist threatens to publicly expose an allegation against him. In this scene from the middle of the play he discusses his situation with a friend from school days who is now his housekeeper. Parts will be played by Mary Hoey and Mark Kirby with Kevin Lilly directing, assisted by Audrey Davitt.

The performances will be followed by a short Q & A with the writers, led by Michael McMullin.

Sunday, November 10, 3:30 in Theatre 1 in the Abbey Arts Centre. Adm €10.

Download a Free Programme for this innovative and exciting event.

A joint production with Ballyshannon Drama Society.