Competition: €300 in prizes for 'Flash Fiction' during Heritage Week

Fore Heritage and Amenity Group offer €300 in prizes for writing competition

“You can live without a lot of things but you can’t live without water,” said Frank McDermott, “and that is why Fore Heritage and Amenity Group (FHAG) will be making water the focus of our work in Fore and we hope it inspires our local creative minds."

Frank was speaking at the beginning of National Heritage Week in the Valley of Fore to launch the ‘Flash Fiction’ competition with the creative prompt water.

“We have €300 of prizes to give away in our first Flash Fiction Heritage Week event, so if you visit Fore and are inspired by the wonders, Lough Lene, the tiny streams, the holy wells, the distillery – create something, write it down and email it into us with a pic of your visit.”

The competition, which the group hope will become a regular fixture, is called the Frank McDermott Flash Fiction Award, and is open during National Heritage Week. The closing date is Sunday, August 20, at midnight.

“We decided on Flash Fiction because of all the amazing things in Fore,” saidUna D’Arcy, FHAG development officer.

“The Wonders ofFore are what makes the site extra special, so to honour the role of stories in our heritage and also to honour our chairperson, Cllr Frank McDermott, who has made it the work of many lifetimes to create access to the site, we have created this writing competition.

“Anyone who knows Frank knows that he is a master of storytelling and building engaging narratives. He is the longest serving elected representative in Europe – a storyteller might say in the whole world.

“A big part of the work Frank does is to build an engaging story – that is how you get lots of different people to co-operate; it is how you get people who disagree to come to a place they can both be content; it is how you engage people for the long haul,” said Una, “so a storytelling competition in his name I think is most appropriate.”

A Fore story she loves is that the 12 streams of Ireland were created by a great hailstorm, and anyone who was out at the Fleadh Cheoil can imagine how they brought that forward into their oral traditions. “We can only suggest that the Shannon and the Boyne, two waterways associated with Fore, are in that dozen,” said Una.

“One of the reasons we are looking at water is that we need a new message to go out loud and clear,” said Frank.

“We depend on water as much today as Ireland’s earliest inhabitants depended on rivers for water, food, transport and territory.

“The pressures on our streams and rivers from pollution, arterial drainage, modifications and changes in climate mean we have to start taking the job of protecting lakes and rivers very seriously.

“That is why we are creating an outdoor classroom area with support from LAWPRO, so that people can learn first hand about the amazing work being carried out in Fore by the Waters Authorities, and we are also working to have an interactive station so that schools can monitor water quality and measure the changes that we can achieve.

“The loss of high-quality water sites has continued unabated for several decades, so halting it now is a matter of great urgency and perhaps our greatest challenge and duty.

“We hope to use this Flash Fiction competition to create new stories as powerful as the Seven Wonders to engage people once again with the waters, streams and lakes of our area.

“These sites are not only important for the biodiversity they support, they are also a source of species to repopulate rivers that are recovering from the effects of pollution.

“The best of Good luck to everyone that is entering,” said Frank.

• To enter the competition, visit Fore during National Heritage Week (continuing till the weekend) and take a snap. Send in your Flash Fiction, poem or prose inspired by the visit and ‘the Wonder of Water’ as your prompt, maximum 450 words, to prescribe4@gmail.com with the subject line Water.

Winners will be announced on August 30.