Welcome to the 5th Annual Kilanerin.com Poetry Competition. The competition is open to the 6th class students from the three parish schools, Kilanerin, Ballyfad and Ballythomas. This year saw 15 students participate in the competition.

Congratulations to the 2015 winner Ali Bushe for her poem ‘Books’, and to the runner-ups Cian McDonald, Patrick Leonard and Matthew Quinn.

The judge this year was John Wyse Jackson. John can be found most days in Zozimus Bookshop, in the Book Café in Gorey. He has written and edited many books, including four collections of poetry. Quite a few of his own poems (often very silly ones!) have also been published in magazines and other places. Visit John in his bookshop or www.zozimusbookshop.com to find out more.

Note from the Judge
Although all the great poems here come from schools, poetry shouldn’t be trapped in classrooms. In fact, my favourite verses nearly always contain a surprise or two – and some of them can even be quite rude! I was delighted to be asked to judge this year’s crop – and was very pleased to find lots of surprises. I hope that one or two of the young poets printed here will carry on working with words in their next school (and even in the holidays…) Who knows where it all might lead?

If you would like a free printed version of the calendar, it is available in the community office and other places locally, or else please contact us and we can arrange for you to get a copy.

Click here to view the Kilanerin.com Poetry Competition Booklet

Click here to view the PDF version in your browser window

Thanks
Kilanerin.com would like to thank John Wyse Jackson for his time in judging the competition. Thanks to all the advertising sponsors who helped to get this wonderful calander booklet printed. A finally thanks to all the 6th class students and their teachers for taking the time to submit their entries, without them this annual competition would not be possible or be the success it is.