Seanán sweeps the board in all stages of the Rotary Young Writer’s Competition

Among the local Primary Schools invited to take part in this competition, the local Rotary Club of Strabane-Lifford found enormous success with Seanán Gallagher.

The theme for the 2023/24 competition was ‘Rebuilding’.

Rebuilding lives and rebuilding communities are aims and threads which run ​through all elements of Rotary’s service activities.

Expression is at the core of the Rotary Young Writer competition, with the broad ​theme leaving contestants with a wide scope to create a piece that is pertinent to ​them.

Seanán Gallagher took up the challenge, with his 500-word piece entitled ‘Re-Building O’ Connolly’s Amazing Wildlife Sanctuary Island’ and emerged winning first place in the intermediate section (11–13-year-olds) at the local club’s stage of the competition.

Success didn’t stop there for Seanán. The local club submitted Seanán’s entry to the Rotary District stage of the competition and again he emerged winning first place in the intermediate section. Rotary District covers all the Rotary Clubs in the whole of island of Ireland.

However, this wasn’t to be the end of Seanán’s success. Rotary District submitted Seanán’s entry into the Rotary, Great Britain and Ireland, stage of their competition and he emerged winning second place in the intermediate section. At that stage of the competition Seanán was competing with all the other entries from 19 Districts of Rotary.

During the awards presentation that took place at the school by Rotary President, Dr. Morris Brown, the Principal of St. Mary’s Primary School, Mrs. Andrea Devine, congratulated Seanán and added that, his success was testament to the school’s special literacy programme that had been developed by the school, and to Seanán’s hard work and creativity.

Further proof of this was the success of two other pupils of St. Mary’s P. S. at the local club’s stage of the competition. Jason Lynch came second in the Junior Section and Davin Friel came third in the Intermediate Section.

At the presentation of the awards to Seanán, President of the local Rotary Club said his success at three stages of their Young Writer Competition was a great credit to himself, his school and his parents. This was Seanán’s final year at St. Mary’s Primary School and President Morris wished him continued success with his second level education.

Other success at Rotary’s club stage of the competition were: -

Aalaiya Wilders coming first in the Junior section and Eoin Strawbridge coming second in the Intermediate section.

Both pupils are from St. Catherines Primary School, Strabane.

Christine Coyle, a pupil form St. Theresa Primary school, Glebe, Sion Mills, came third in the Junior Section.

President Morris hopes the success his Rotary Club had with the competition this year will encourage the local Primary Schools to take part again next year.

Re-Building O’ Connolly’s Amazing Wildlife Sanctuary Island

As the sun rose, and its reflection moved slowly across lake O’ Connolly, a small boat named Proud Kerry sat calmly. Onboard, Otto waited patiently for the first fish of the day. He was excited as it was his 16 th birthday, and the first time he was allowed to fish alone.

As he waited a sparkle caught his attention from a nearby island. The sparkle was

surrounded by tiny yellow and red speckles, was a curious sight for Otto who regularly fished there with his dad. As he rowed closer, the mystery revealed itself. It was an old glass jar reflecting the sun amongst a mass of cardboard, plastic bottles, and all sorts of rubbish!

Otto leapt out of Proud Kerry and scooped up the jar to see a damaged label that read Thomas’s Mayonnaise. At that moment, a curious little puffin, with a bright white spot on his left wing, glided down to examine the shining object Otto had in his hand. Slowly they were both joined by a whole group of other animals. Bright orange Hermit Crabs, noisy Bluebirds, shy Deer, hungry Hedgehogs, flying Red Squirrels, sly Foxes, and cheeky Ferrets who pushed their way to the front.

Suddenly Otto realised that all these animals could die from all the litter scattered around the island. Then he noticed another bizarre looking object near the shore covered in weeds and thorns. As he carefully removed them, he discovered an old worn sign with “O’ Connolly’s Amazing Wildlife Sanctuary Island” engraved on it. Otto wondered how old the sign was and guessed it was incredibly old and had not been used in a long time. He imagined that O’ Connolly had been an early explorer or animal rescuer in the early 1900s. He pictured him with a big grey beard, wearing an explorer’s hat and smoking a clay pipe out the side of his mouth. Had O’ Connolly once been stranded on the island that now has his name?

Then an idea hit Otto. He would re-build the sanctuary! He did not waste any time and got to work immediately. He cleared away all the weeds, gathered the rubbish into piles for recycling and collected any plastic floating in the water around the island. After many hours of hard work, he had cleaned the entire island and fixed the sign. Otto had revived the sanctuary.

As the sun set in the distance and the animals began to sleep, Otto got back onto Proud Kerry and set off for home. He looked forward to telling his parents about his adventure and as he looked back at the island from the water, he felt proud to have made a difference. He wondered what O’ Connolly would have thought of his efforts and was glad that an old rusty sign from the past had helped him make a difference for the future. He was so hungry he could smell his dinner already – it was Fish & Chips.

Well earned by Otto!

By Seanán Gallagher.