Writing competition is a success storyort Conference

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04b785a3.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Councillor Keith Martin </B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Councillor Keith Martin "><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="news21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="News"><U><I><B><U>Back to news page</U></B></I></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="08089bd0.jpg" border=0 width="137" height="189" ALT="Large photo Councillor Keith Martin" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I>Writing competition is a success storyort Conference</I></div> <bR> <div> The George A Birmingham Short Story competition is a great success this year according to its organisers. The competition was revived late last year by special sub-committee of Westport Town Council after the short story competition was suspended for a couple of years by its creators, the now disbanded George A Birmingham Society.</div> <div> The sub-committee made up of Cllrs Peter Flynn, Declan Dever, Tereasa McGuire, Keith Martin, Town Clerk Ann Moore and local author Mary McCombs brought the competition back to life and into the local and national writing scene when details of the competition where announced earlier in the year.</div> <div> The response to the return of the competition was better than expected and almost 250 entries where received. While the competition still has a local feel the entries have come from as near as Westport to as far away as Australia. The competition has always been held in high regard and the launch of the competition’s own website helped spread details of the competition near and far.</div> <div> So popular was the competition that the committee took the decision to extend the entry date by another four weeks to allow many who expressed interest to submit their entries. Another boon to the competition was the inclusion of its prize giving ceremony in this year’s Covey Festival.</div> <div> The authors are competing for the prestige of the title and for the three prizes of €500, €300 and €250 respectively for 1<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >st</FONT>, 2<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >nd</FONT> and 3<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >rd</FONT> place. The winners have come from all walks of life and from all parts of the world. The competition has made Westport a landmark in writing circles and has contributed to the town’s arts activities and drawn visitors to the town.</div> <div> The first winner of the GAB competition was Mollie McClosky, born in Philadelphia and living in Sligo. Mollie went on to win first prize another year and also won the Francis McManus award and has since had her collection of short stories published. Another notable winner was Michael Mee, a trainee solicitor who shared 3<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >rd</FONT> prize that same year. He gave up legal career to become stand up comedian.</div> <div> Another winner of note was Seán Murphy from Swinford who came 3<FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Courier New" >rd</FONT> place and subsequently moved into town by the time prizes were awarded. Sean went from strength to strength and won first prize a few years later and later married and settled in Westport.</div> <div> Martin Malone was an officer in UNIFIL (United Nations forces In Lebanon) Martin had a collection of short stories published and was runner up a number of times as was Hugo Kelly from Kings Hill. Another winner was Conal Creedon also won second prize one year. His brother John Creedon (he of TV & radio) came to Westport to see him collect his prize. They stayed in the Castlecourt have since made many return visits to Westport.</div> <div> The George A Birmingham Short Story Competition honours the memory of Westport's famous writer Rev. James Hannay who under the pen name George A Birmingham wrote many critically claimed and popular books. </div> <div> Rev Hannay was educated at Haileybury and Trinity College Dublin and entered the Church of Ireland and became rector of Westport, County Mayo, in 1892. </div> <div> His first half-dozen novels produced little stir until 1908 when he published Spanish Gold, featuring Reverend Meldon, a curate of unusual boldness and eloquence. The reading public welcomed this new sort of humorous novel, and Hannay responded by writing a 'George Birmingham' novel almost every year. </div> <div> Like all Covey’s, be they born or blow-in, the Rev Hannay was a character. For his own amusement and to strike back at bureaucracy he gave unusual responses to some of the many questionnaires he was sent by his bishop, church and other authorities.</div> <div> He took particular umbrage against the annual demand from the education office to report the dimensions of the Westport schoolroom at Holy Trinity Hall on the Newport Road.</div> <div> For the first couple of years he had filled in the required figures but by the third year he replied that the schoolroom was still the same size. The education office badgered him with reminders until Birmingham finally filled in the figures. This time he doubled the dimensions of his schoolroom. </div> <div> As no-one questioned the expansion he went on doubling the measurements until 'in the course of five or six years that schoolroom became a great deal larger than St. Paul's Cathedral.' But nobody at the education office was at all concerned. </div> <div> So, the next year, Birmingham suddenly reduced the dimensions of his colossal classroom "to the size of an American tourist trunk. It would have been impossible to get three children in that schoolroom and nobody took the slightest notice," Hannay said, "nobody needed the information. But the system did, and the system had to be satisfied."</div> <div> Hannay's General John Regan when produced as a play in Westport in 1913 led to a riot and the boycotting of Hannay when the townspeople discovered that he was the author. He left Westport and, after service as an army chaplain, settled at Mells rectory, Somerset, in 1924. Later he took charge of a small parish in London, where he died on 2 February 1950. </div> <div> Besides his many novels he published the autobiographical series of books beginning with A Padre in France (1918) which detailed his experiences in the trenches during World War One, An Irishman Looks at his World (1919), A Wayfarer in Hungary (1925), and several religious works.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>