There was great excitement among the children at Scoll Naomh Breandán in Annaghdown this week when the children in fourth class launched their own book of poems.

Each of the 16 children in Katie O’Donovan’s class submitted a poem to the collection which was launched at a special ceremony in the school hall on Wednesday afternoon.

Seven of the children read their own poems at the launch of the book which came about thanks to a series of poetry workshops undertaken by An Spidéal poet Sean O Coistealbha in Annaghdown and Maigh Cullinn in February of this year.

The language planning officers in the two areas, Ciaran Tierney and William Howard, decided to bring the children of Scoil Baile Nua and Scoil Naomh Breandán together for a series of interactive workshops aimed at inspiring their love of poetry and ‘normalising’ the use of Irish outside the classroom.

After completing the workshops, Ciaran and Katie thought it would be a great idea if the Annaghdown children would write poems of their own for a specially-commissioned booklet which was funded by the language planning officer.

Annaghdown is part of Gaeltacht an Eachréidh, one of the weakest Gaeltacht areas in Co. Galway where beautiful Irish is spoken but the language has gone into decline for some time.

Ms O’Donovan gave the children a couple of weeks to write their own poems ‘as Gaeilge’ following the conclusion of the workshops and she was thrilled with the standard of the poems.

Ciaran then hired book designer Ines McGee, of An Bean Sí, to come up with a design for an interactive pocket-sized booklet which the children could colour in themselves. The books were printed last week by Clódóiri Lurgan in Connemara.

Parents attended the launch at the school on Wednesday afternoon, where the children got to enjoy pizzas from Clareke’s Crust, Corrandulla, and members of fourth class also provided musical entertainment following the reading of the poems.

To add to the excitement, the launch of the booklet was covered by Roisin Ni Chéileachair of Nuacht Cúla 4, who broadcast a lovely report on Cúla 4 the following day.

“This was a wonderful project. The children loved the poetry workshops and they got a great taste of the style of poetry Sean O Coistealbha writes and they got to know him as a poet and what inspires him. They had great ‘craic’ at the poetry workshops and they gave them inspiration to write their own poems,” said Ms O’Donovan.

She gave the children freedom to choose their own themes for the poems and she felt this was reflect in the passion with which they undertook the project.

“It seemed to inspire them that we gave them freedom to choose their own themes. The book is very special and very adaptable. The children will be able to colour it in themselves and put their own touch on it. It is lovely and I hope that they will keep copies of this book long into the future.”