President Michael D. Higgins visits Fighting Words
President Michael D. Higgins visited Fighting Words today. He was here for the launch of a new stamp from An Post to celebrate Dublin Unesco City of
Literature, and for the launch of our 3rd annual Fighting Words/Irish Times special supplement of new writing by young writers.
The stamp, as you can see, is comprised of a story. We were asked by An Post some months ago to invite children to write a story that would capture the essence of Dublin as a city of literature - and it must be precisely 224 words! We received hundreds of stories, and Eoin Moore's was selected for the stamp. It is a wonderful piece of writing, and it is a wonderful honour for Eoin, and for Fighting Words.
Equally brilliant is the writing in this year's Irish Times/Fighting Words special supplement. It includes 7 primary school stories and 23 individual pieces by teenaaers from secondary schools around the country.
President Higgins has said:"When we learn to read and to write; to understand letters on a page, and to create our own sentences using those letters, we are handed a great gift in life; a gift that allows us to engage fully in society, to educate and inform ourselves, to open our minds, to realise our possibilities and to discover new worlds and new ways of thinking."
As most of you reading this will know, that pretty much sums up why Fighting Words exists.
We thank the President for honouring Fighting Words with his visit. We thank An Post for their lovely idea. We thank the Irish Times for their extraordinary generosity and vision in providing such a prestigious platform for young writers. And, above all, we thank all the children and young adults who come to Fighting Words to write.
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