Celebrated Irish poet Paul Durcan

Some of Durcan’s poems are extremely long, others are incredibly short.  However even when the poem is short, these little nuggets are bursting with content and finely crafted style.

 

Durcan is a master of the very short poem.  They often work like punchlines or visual gags.  We stare for a minute or two before we get the true meaning.​He manages to pack a great deal of meaning into a couple of lines.  ​They often work by juxtaposition i.e. placing two unlikely statements side by side.  ​

These poems confront us with a question and often a very unlikely answer.

 

After studying Durcan's poetry, my class wrote their own short poems mimicking the themes, style and Format.  The results are in the video below.

 

World Book Day

Schools around the country celebrated World Book Day in Ireland on Thursday 3rd March 2016. Over the last 19 years World Book Day has become firmly established as Ireland’s biggest annual event promoting the enjoyment of books and reading. The main aim is to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with an opportunity to have a book of their own. This may sound like a very simple idea, but unfortunately, many children do not have access to books in their homes.

Here at Newbridge College we promoted a read-a-thon, book quizzes, a treasure hunt among many other activities and some teachers of questionable sanity even dressed up as well known literary characters.  Below are a selection of pictures from the day.