Story Seeds: The Great Laois Story Mash-Up!

About this Project:
This special storytelling project brings together the imaginations of young
writers from schools across Laois, created as part of Children’s Book Festival
2024. Under the guidance of the Laois Library Services' Fighting Words Team
and supported by Creative Ireland Laois and Laois Library Service, this
collaborative effort celebrates creativity, community, and the joy of writing.
Students from four primary schools around the county joined forces to develop
original stories, drawing from their own perspectives and of course, local Laois
inspirations.
Participating schools are:
Our Lady’s Meadow National School, Durrow – 6th Class
St. Colman’s National School, Stradbally – 6th Class
Scoil Naomh Eoin, Killenard, Portarlington – 5th Class
St. Fintan’s BNS, Mountrath – 5th & 6th Class
We hope you enjoy this collection of stories, crafted by the talented young
writers of Laois!
About Children’s Book Festival:
Children’s Book Festival runs throughout October as a nationwide celebration
of books and reading. Through the Right to Read initiative, the festival invites
children to discover the joy of stories and supports their reading journey
through events, activities, and collaborations with writers, artists, and
storytellers.
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About Story Seeds:
The Story Seeds project began in 2021 as a creative partnership between
Fighting Words, An Garda Síochána Community Engagement, and local schools.
This initiative aimed to foster storytelling that celebrates the communities
where we live, work, and play.
The first collection, an enormous success, was crafted by primary schools on
Dublin’s northside. Since then, further collections have been created by
students in Dublin South, Dublin West, Drogheda, Co. Louth, Limerick City, Co.
Tipperary, and Co. Wicklow. This current collection showcases the creativity of
young writers from schools in Co. Laois. Each story bursts with action and
imagination, introducing a diverse cast of inventive characters—like
Christopher, a devil who lives in Durrow and has one larger eye, octopus legs,
and a goatee, and George the Giraffe, who plays hurling for St Fintan's GAA in
Mountrath.
Congratulations to all the young authors for their incredible work. Enjoy these
stories!
Fighting Words:
Founded in 2009 by Roddy Doyle and Seán Love in Dublin, Fighting Words is a
creative writing centre dedicated to helping students of all ages enhance their
writing skills and discover their passion for storytelling.
For more information, visit: www.fightingwords.ie
The copyright for all work created at Fighting Words belongs to the authors,
with Fighting Words receiving permission to feature this creative work across
its publications, promotional materials, and website.
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The Great Laois Story
Mash-Up!
Stories from Primary School Students
in County Laois
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Contents:
Mysterious Mo, The Devil and the Crown Jewels 5
The Stick Man, the Spider and the Electric Picnic 10
Jeremy the Giraffe and the Case of the Golden Banana 17
George The Giraffe and the 17 toed snail 22
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Story One
Mysterious Mo, The Devil and
the Crown Jewels
6 th Class
Our Ladys Meadow NS, Durrow, Co. Laois
11th September 2024
5

There is a Devil called Christopher and he lives in Durrow. He
is small and red and yellow; he has one eye bigger than the
other. He has octopus’s legs and a goatee. He is in 6th class in
Our Devil’s Woods School, Durrow, Co. Laois. It is a school for
creatures and humans. Christopher is bullied for having
tentacles, a squeaky voice and being smaller than everyone
else.
One day, the class bully Brad and his henchmen, Chad and
Lad, stole Christopher’s breadsticks and threw them in the
toilet. They were laughing at him and calling him “Breadstick
Fred”. He is upset and angry, he needs to come up with a plan
for revenge. Brad has a magical necklace at home, it grants
wishes. Christopher will use it to turn into a human, so he
decides to steal it.
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Later that night, Christopher walks to Brad’s house in
Erkindale Drive. His slithering tentacle’s make a popping
sound like a duck’s quack. He expertly cuts a circle in the
window and crawls in. He hears voices so he hides in a
cabinet. He then slides up the stairs to get the necklace from
the vault. He gets the necklace, but accidently sets off the
security alarm. He escapes by sliding up the chimney, where
his best friend, Jeff the Sloth is waiting. Christopher reaches
up to Jeff, to help him. Jeff grabs his hand but the necklace
breaks. The necklace is broken into pieces; Mo the Pidgeon
helps to gather the pieces. Jeff says “I know who can fix this!
My uncle is a tiger wizard, his name is Bartholomew,
Demetrius, De Marcus, St James the Third, or Bart for short”.
Bart lives in an igloo in the North Pole. Mo the Pidgeon says
“Jim, the mechanic has a hovercraft with a jet engine and a
flying carpet”. That weekend is a bank holiday, so Christopher,
Jeff and Mo decide to rent the flying carpet (as they can’t fly
the hovercraft).
The crew arrives at the igloo, to find Bart the tiger swimming
in the freezing cold water. Bart is smaller than a usual tiger,
with yellow and green stripes and a purple Mohawk. He is
very cool, wears shades and gold chains. They ask, “please Sir
can you help us?” He growls back at them, and they jump
back. He then takes out his banana phone and uses Google
translate so they can understand his growls. Mo the Pidgeon
is being very annoying, so Bart chews him up and spits him
back out as a rat!
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Bart offers to help them in exchange for the Crown Jewels,
which are made by Waterford Crystal and are being kept in
Bob’s Bar, Durrow. They need to get back to Durrow, but the
“Scarecrow Festival” is on, and Christopher is afraid of the
locals. They are very angry with him, because last year he
vandalised the bouncing castle, damaged the stalls, set fire to
the scarecrows and ate all the breadsticks, so he is now
banned from the festival. When they get to Bob’s Bar, they
order a drink as a distraction, then they snuck behind the bar
only to realise the jewels had been moved to Faulty’s Pub! So,
they steal a truck from Dunne’s Garden Centre and drive to
Faulty’s Pub, they then sneak into the building. Since Mo is
now a rat, they use him as a distraction and people run
screaming when they see him. Christopher and Jeff slide
down the banister to the vault, which is protected by arrows
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and lasers. They reach a scale, which they must balance in
order to get the crown and not set off the alarm. Christopher
balances the scale and Jeff grabs the crown. Jeff turns to
Christopher and says, “mwah ha ha, I was never your friend
Octopus legs”. Mo the pigeon rat comes down and
Christopher thinks he will save him but no, Mo is a dirty rat
double-crosser too!
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Story Two
The Stick Man, the Spider
and the Electric Picnic
6th Class
St Colmans National School, Stradbally, Co. Laois
25th September 2024
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Meanwhile in a town called Stradbally……. Once upon a time
there was a character called Mick the Stickman. Mick has a
purple and black mohawk. He has humongous hands and
feet. Mick finds it hard to get through doors and people keep
stepping on his huge feet. He creates shock waves
everywhere he walks. Mick has to get special shoes, size 17
½, made. They are orange and blue.
Mick was traveling to secondary school one morning and a
big, massive cobweb was beside him, a large spider, the size
of his hands (and they’re like dinner plates) dropped down.
Mick almost had a heart attack. He let out a high-pitched
scream and grabbed the emergency window breaking
hammer and jumped out of the window. Mick wasn’t hurt
because he is unbreakable and can teleport. Mick teleported
in a panic because of the spider and finds himself in a shed.
When Mick comes out of the shed, he sees a sign, “Paddy’s
Shed”. Paddys Shed is in the Glebe, Stradbally, Co. Laois.
Just at that point, Paddy who is also a stick man comes to the
door and is frightened and alarmed to meet another stick
man. They both have never seen another stick person before.
“Who are you? shouts Paddy. “I’m going to throw my Twix
bars at you!” as he sharpened his Twix bars with his red
electric twix sharpener, with pictures of mini Twixes on the
side and the logo “Eat my Twix”.
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“Don’t you throw that at me, you’re making my day worse. A
spider has already attacked me! “says Mick.
Just then, Paddy notices a big hairy leg crawling up Mick’s
shoulder. Paddy shouts, “Spider” and starts screaming. Mick
jumps up and down and runs around in a panic. Mick and
Paddy both scream, I’,m terrified of spiders”. Me too” shouts
Paddy. Paddy shoots his sharpened twixes at the spider. The
spider shouts “Ow “ in a French accent and jumps off. “That
stung!”The caramel is like venom” and the spider starts
dancing up and down. The venomous twixes makes their
victim dance the Macarena.
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Mick and Paddy are confused by the talking, French accented
spider. The spider says, “Bonjour, je m'appelle Baquette”.
Mick responds, “I’m not that good at French, do you speak
English?”. “Un peu, a leetle”. The spidor tells them she is a
magical spider who can grant wishes and if they stop
throwing Twixes at her, she will grant them one wish each.
Paddy asks for a lifetime supply of Twixes. And out of
nowhere, a mountain of venomous, sharpened Twixes fall out
of the sky, falling on Paddy’s Shed, breaking the roof and
burying Paddy amongst them. Paddy gets stabbed by a
sharpened twix and dances the macarena, shaking off the
chocolate.
Now, Mick makes his wish, he wishes to be a world famous
tap dancer and perform at the Electric Picnic during the
Wolfetones performance of “A Celtic Symphony”. But the
catch to his wish, the spider tells him, is that he will only be
famous for 100 days. The Electric Picnic is in 99 days’ time!
Mick finds out he can tap dance brilliantly. “Wow, he thinks, I
can become famous like Michael Flatley”. Mick begins
teaching Irish and tap dancing at Lynams and Buggs Irish
Dancing Schools in Stradbally.
Mick enjoys the fame and becomes like Michael Flately. He
records himself dancing in different places like Stradbally Lake
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and Oakvale Woods and posts them on Youtube. The videos
go viral, and everyone wants to see Mick dance. He gets
invited to dance in Riverdance show by Michael Flately!
The video gets seen by a member of the Wolfe tones, Tommy
Byrne, who calls Mick up and invites Mick to dance with them
at the Electric Picnic. Mick can bring a friend.
Meanwhile, Paddy and Mick have apologized to each other
and have become friends over the 99 days since they met.
Paddy is a little worried after his own wish didn’t go well.
Paddy says to Mick, “It didn’t go well for me, it mightn’t go
well for you, be careful of what you wish for”. Paddy warns
Mick, “Both of us are afraid of spiders, I don’t trust this
French spider, I think she’s up to something”. Mick is annoyed
and accuses Paddy of being jealous of his fame.
Paddy asks Mick not to go to the Electric Picnic. He has a bad
feeling about it. Mick says, “I have to or my reputation will be
ruined”. “Please come with me, Paddy”.
Mick is practicing his dance routine in the Market House and
on the Stradbally river at the Malt House bridge. He also
dances in front of the students of St Colman’s NS at Friday’s
assembly. Mr Lynch, the school principal and Ms Carroll the
6th class teacher and Mr Brennan the 5th class teacher
dances with him. He jigs and taps at the Library Court House
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with Michelle and Kirsten, the librarians and joins the Trad
Night in Dunne’s pub on Friday night.
Mick travels the world, dancing to large crowds and
becoming more famous than he ever dreamed. He’s a social
media sensation! He’s getting 1.3 billion hits on Tiktok and
Insta. More than Christian Ronaldo! This makes Ronaldo sad.
He calls Mick out in a press conference. Ronaldo comes to
Stradbally library to borrow a book on “How to get more
followers on social media than Mick the Stick Man by Brían,
illustrated by Soraya.
Suddenly it was 3 days to the Electric Picnic, Mick starts
panicking. He is feeling nervous about performing in front of
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so many people. Paddy, tells him “Take a deep breath, it will
all be ok when its over”. “But Kylie Minogue, Calvin Harris,
Taylor Swift, The Sawdoctors, Alice Laffan, Ross Molloy and
the Stradbally Choir will be there” says Mick. Paddy says,
“Don’t worry, you’re better than all of them”. I’ll get Ms O
Donnell from St Colmans NS to do mindfulness and 5 star
breathing to help you”. Mick tries the mindfulness techniques
and it calms him down.
The final day of the Picnic was finally here and Mick was due
to appear with the Wolfe tones. The main stage was in front
of Cosby Hall, on the Lawn. The band takes to the stage at
10.30pm and call Mick up to dance at the Celtic Symphony at
11.45pm. The crowd loves Mick and start screaming his
name. Just then, the clock struck twelve and Mick fell over his
gigantic feet. He realizes he can’t dance anymore. Paddy
realizes that it is now 100 days and Mick’s wish is over! He
starts throwing sharpened Twixes at everybody so they’re
covered in venomous caramel and start dancing the
Macarena. In all the calamity, Mick and Paddy are able to get
out and teleport home.
Sometime later, Mick is at home, chatting to Paddy and he
receives an email from an unknown address. There’s a
cobweb in the top corner of the email and it says, “ The worst
is yet to come, lock your doors at night. Au Revior, Baguette...
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Story Three
Jeremy the Giraffe
and the Case of the Golden Banana
5th Class
Scoil Naomh Eoin, Killenard, Portarlington, Co. Laois
9th October 2024
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“I want the gold banana!”, shouts Jeremy. Jeremy is a giraffe,
miniature in size and he needs the banana. He is standing in
front of his mirror, in his toilet free bathroom, brushing his
teeth with his banana flavoured toothpaste.
Jeremy steps down off the stool. He is in the Presidential
Suite of The Heritage Hotel, Killenard, Co. Laois where he
lives. He lives there because he is Lord Portarlington, and his
current house, Emo Court is being renovated to remove all
the toilets.
The previous week, Jeremy had gone to Killenard School
where the guest teacher, Ms Baguette the French accented
spider, who is the substitute teacher for Ms Skehan in 5th
Class, had told them some local news. The only big gold
banana in the world, the size of a chair, is coming from
Australia and is going on a parade through Ireland. It’s first
stop is Laois and Jeremy is invited is see it because he is Lord
Portarlington after all.
Jeremy is getting dressed for the special banana visit and he
puts on his special suit with a banana motif, his gold glasses
and his solid gold chains with “I’m the banana king”. Jeremy
wants the golden banana because Ms Baguette told them
that it grants its owner more power.
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Jeremy wants to take over all of Leinster and become The
King! Ms Baguette knows this because her grandspider
created the golden banana with magic, using an enchanted
tome, “The Sorcerer’s Banana Cookbook by Dorothy, the
Wizard of Bananas.
On his way to the parade on Main St in Portarlington, outside
the library and just around the corner from the swimming
pool; Jeremy accidentally gets lost in the portaloo area. He is
terrified and freaked out. Jeremy exclaims, “I’m so afraid of
toilets, whatever shall I do!”. And then, Jimmy the sky-blue
cow, drops out of the sky on a zip line from a helicopter and
falls on top of Jeremy. A rabbit hops out of his top hat
because Jimmy is a moogician. Jimmy says “Sorry sir, here’s
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your nuclear codes so you can launch your nuclear missile at
the portaloos! Jeremy says, “Stop milking it and get off me!
Jimmy comforts Jeremy and gives him a big hug because he
knows he is terrified of toilets. “I know you’re scared of
toilets from when you were flushed down one when you
were a toy. Even though it turned you into a real giraffe!”.
Meanwhile, in Derryounce Woods, gathered together in one
of the disused railway cars, a team of thieves, The Terrible
Trio, discuss plans to steal the golden banana. Gary the
oversized snail, Milly the miniature Monkey and Bob the
sunglasses wearing ghost plot their deed. They drive the
railway car using the old train lines until they reach their
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horse, Merrylegs and using the carriage, they then gallop off
towards the parade. The carriage gets caught in Merrylegs
tail, and the terrible trio worried about their horse, bring her
to Karla the vet in Portarlington Vet Centre to get help.
The Golden Banana is in the Community Centre, next to the
swimming pool. Jeremy and Jimmy head towards it in the
helicopter. Jimmy is piloting his lordship to see the banana.
The helicopter lands in the playground and just then the
Terrible Trio come out of the vets with Merrylegs who is all
better.
Gary who was friends with Jeremy in secondary school
recognizes Jeremy as the giraffe who hired them to steal the
banana! Gary says,” Hello Boss”. Jimmy faints in shock.
Jeremy shouts, “Where is my banana?” Bob says” We were at
the vets, so we haven’t gotten it yet”. They all turned to the
plush red cushioned stand to find the banana was gone!
Then out of nowhere, Jimmy pulls out his sharpened Twix
gun, fires venemous caramel bars at them all, making them
dance the macarena, grabs the golden banana and flies away
in his helicopter, shouting “See you later moosers!” Moooha
ha ha ha …..
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Story Four
George The Giraffe
and the 17 toed snail
5th & 6 th Class
St Fintan’s BNS, Mountrath, Co. Laois
15th October 2024
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It was a sunny Monday morning in Kiln Lane, Mountrath.
George the giraffe ran down the stairs and went to the
garden shed for his breakfast cereal, Rainbow Ninja Rolls.
While he was eating, a snail crawled out of the cereal box.
“My name Greg” says the garden snail, intimidatingly. George
rubs his eyes to make sure he’s not seeing things. George says
“Yugh” and spits out the cereal. So, then George tries to hit
the snail off the box.” How dare you” says Greg, “I’ll do kungfu
fighting on you”.
George exclaims, “You’re just the snail I’m looking for to show
me how to do kung-fu fighting moves”. “Why should I train
you, you’re too small, weak and slow to train”. “Well, how do
I know you do kung-fu? Asks George. Greg responds by taking
marshmallow from the cereal and throwing them like ninja
stars at the wall, just missing George’s ears and imbedding in
the garden shed wall.
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Greg says to George, “I’ll give you one chance but to prove
your worthy, you have to face your biggest fear!”. George
replies, “My biggest fear is big, stinky toes”. In response, Greg
replies, “I’ve 17 toes and they’re all big and stinky. You will
have to stare at them and kiss them”. George pleads, “No,
please have mercy on me”. Greg decides to help George with
his ninja training even though he didn’t kiss his toes. George’s
mum then calls him because he has to go to a hurling match
in St Fintans GAA.
George heads off to the match. At the match, which is a
county final between Mountrath and Camross, their team are
losing by 6 points. In the crowd watching are Triona and
Denise the local librarians, the mayor Frank N Stein and Mr
Guilfoyle and Andrew and all of 5th & 6th Class in St Fintans
BNS.
Greg felt bad for George. He had snuck into the match and
was watching. He uses his 17 toes to drop kick the ball into
the goal. The ball goes so fast, the net gets ripped in half. The
ball goes through the net, across the field, around the world
and comes back and hits George at the back of his head. He
gets knocked out and when he comes around, his neck is now
longer by 6ft. Another player, Christian gets substituted on as
full forward and scores again to win the final. George is angry
because he was substituted by a good player, but he wanted
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to be the best player. “Why did you hit the ball so hard?” asks
George. Greg replies” Why not? I am a ninja snail”.
Then George says “Remember the deal we made? I will kiss
your toes now if you make me a ninja”. “Pucker up then” says
Greg and George kisses his smelly, stinky, horrible, slimy toes
with long, shiny toenails. George is no longer afraid of toes
after doing this.
Greg brings him to the Castle in Hubert’s Estate to begin his
kung-fu training. George learns back flips, jujitsu fighting,
karate, Taekwondo, kick boxing and a total concentration
mindset. After all the exercise, George and Greg are hungry
and they head to Eddie’s chipper for a quarter pounder with
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extra cheese and mayonnaise. A random stranger spider
appears and offers to buy their food for a favour. George asks,
“What’s the favour?” She tells them, speaking in a french
accent, “Oui, I vant you to steal the golden flag off the
Climbing Tower in Mountrath Park and you will have to fight
Tommy the T-Rex to get it”. George and Greg ask, “What’s in
this for us?”. Baguette replies, “I will grant you one wish
each”. George asks to be a better ninja and Greg rejects the
offer because he doesn’t trust the spider.
They set off to Mountrath Park on a Joe Moore bus but when
they arrive at the Climbing Frame, Tommy the T-Rex and his
armada of ninja raptors appears. George says, “I think its time
to say goodbye my friend”. Just then Greg slithers so fast that
a magical portal appears……
Toe be continued….
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Authors
Mysterious Mo, The Devil and
the Crown Jewels
6 th Class - Our Ladys Meadow NS, Durrow, Co. Laois
Teacher: Mrs. Robinson
James Dooley
Grace Kavanagh
Yuliia Yemelianova
Isabella Umanee
Aishling Mahony
Abigail Grogan
Ryan McDonald
Frankie O'Carroll
Liam O’Sullivan
Rachel Scully
Clara Kells
Cora Muldowney
Edward Ince
Alekss Kuzovs
Hannah Dunne
Todd Lalor
Aoife Lawlor
Harry Gee
Thomas Shortall
Diana Alksne
Sophia Kavanagh
John Hourihan
Aleah Aylward
Leon O'Hara
Ciaran Farrell
Rian Fox
Nathan Dunne
Kate O'Brien
Conor Campion
Saran Doyle
The Stick Man, the Spider
and the Electric Picnic
6 th Class - St Colmans N.S., Stradbally, Co. Laois
Teacher: Mrs. Carroll
Celine Byrne
Ben Cahill
Bríain Carroll
Freya Carroll
Adam Coady
Emma Delaney
Zoe Delaney
Paddy Dillion
Layla Fahes
Mary Kate Fenlon
Oisin Finnane
Colm Gannon
Lily Grant
Maria Hennessy
Aidan Kelly
Conor Kelly
Fae Kelly
Kayleigh Kelly
Taylor Kelly Molloy
Roscoe Leonard
Leah Lewis
Ben Lynch
Brian Moloney
Tom Meade
Mark Moore
Réaghen Mullen
Dziugas Pranevicius
Luca Rowan
Rasheeda Sambu
Godson Sino
Ciara Woulfe
Dylan Paige
Soraya Finnerty Farrell
Freya Mulcahy
Milosz
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Authors
Jeremy the Giraffe
and the Case of the Golden Banana
5 th Class - Scoil Naomh Eoin, Killenard, Portarlington, Co. Laois
Teacher: Ms Skehan
Samuel Semsch
Isaac Canavan
Mayah Cobbe
Zara Craig
Samuel McElwee
Ely Mihajlovic
Marlena Gavin
Denis Doni
Aoibhéann Gormley
Ruadhán Gallagher
Síofra Carroll
Noah Hendry
Joshua Roux
Seán Corscadden
Zlata Shemerliuk
Ethan Lee
Conor Quinn
Dominykas Kaczorowski
Noah Hendry
Evie Rogers
Vanessa Sandu
Ben Murphy
Joe Boland
Paddy Cash
George The Giraffe
and the 17 toed snail
5 th & 6 th Class - St Fintan’s BNS, Mountrath, Co. Laois
Teachers: Mr. Guilfoyle, Ms Connolly
Kayden Kelly Sweeney
Kayden Bolger
Jay Sydes
Jamie Rice
Harry Dooley
Christian Burke
Alex Rice
Rory Marum
Prosperity Adebowale
Joshua Fitzpatrick
Jack Coughlan
Hubert Lewandowski
Elliott McKay
Andrii Popov
Ross Osborne
Oisín Kirwan
Nicolas Demeter
Mate Silagadze
Killian Killeen
Kevin John Farrell
Kah Weng Wong
Johnny Nevin
Dawid Olejnik
Daniel Moore
Adam Lynch
Aaron Hyland
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Acknowledgements
This project has blossomed thanks to the creativity and dedication of so many.
Our deepest gratitude goes to the young writers whose stories celebrate the
communities they call home, and to their wonderful teachers for their
enthusiasm and commitment to this project.
We are especially grateful for the generous support from Creative Ireland Laois
and Laois Library Service, and for the guidance and encouragement from the
Fighting Words staff, in particular Sara Bennett & Pierina Campbell.
And a special thank you to The Laois Library Services’ Fighting Words Team —
Karen Lambe, Thomas Scott, Erika Lewis, Denise Kinsella, Lori Moriarty, and
Edel Prendergast—whose dedication and creativity made this all possible.
Workshop Facilitators:
• Karen Lambe
• Thomas Scott
Editors:
• Lori Moriarty
• Edel Prendergast
Story Illustrators:
• Erika Lewis
• Denise Kinsella
Project Co-ordinators:
• Rachel Hoban
• Karen Lambe
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...?.-/--=c---,,.,,_
Laois County
Library Service