Limerick competition launched to celebrate St Patrick’s Day
By Tommy O’Callaghan
The Cúirt Festival has launched a limerick competition to mark St Patrick’s Day festivities and Seachtain na Gaelige.
The Lá Fhéile Pádraig limerick competition is aimed for both kids and adults to celebrate their Irish heritage through the art of limericks.
The unique competition accommodates all ages, with four age categories available to enter. The categories include under 10s, 10-12 years old, 13-17 years old, and over 18s with the winner of each category winning a prize of €50.
Ruth Walsh, Marketing and Communications Assistant with Cúirt Festival, said they wanted to mark the cultural events in a way that involved literature associated with Ireland.
“With it being St. Patrick’s Day this week and Seachtain na Gaelige for the past two weeks we wanted to do something that included emerging writers and the Irish language but also just celebrate Irishness.
“That is the motivation behind the competition – what’s more Irish in terms of literature than a limerick? They are associated with Irish literature from the past. We have four age categories. Kids can enter and it can be something fun they can write with their teacher in school or at home with their parents. It’s a way to get them involved in celebrating St Patrick’s Day and Seachtain na Gaeilge.
“Adults can have a bit of fun with it too. I think we have all heard funny limericks in the past so it is a bit of craic. I think that’s what we kind of need at the moment. Anything to get people creative and get some fun going,” she said.
Their signature festival, Cúirt International Festival of Literature, will be held online between 21-25 April.
Ms Walsh said the current competition offers an opportunity to interact with the community during challenging times.
“We are coming up to our festival but with lockdown you do have to try and be creative and come up with different ways in engaging with the community and get people talking and interacting as much as possible. A competition especially can awaken that competitive nature in people,” she said.
Ms Walsh outlined the response to the competition has been great so far. They have received many submissions and have enjoyed reading them.
With the group so used to reading popular forms of literature such as poetry and fiction, she mentioned it’s been wonderful to read limericks for a change.
Cúirt Festival are based in Galway but the competition is open nationwide.
To enter, email limerick to info@cuirt.ie or tag Cúirt Festival on social media and use #CuirtComp. The deadline is Sunday 21 March at 5pm.
