Congratulations to Mairéad Donnellan, from Bailieborough, Co Cavan, who has won first prize in the Trocaire and Poetry Ireland Competition 2016, with her poem Unto Me is the Journeying. The theme of this year’s competition was Forced to Flee, quoting Ahmed, a refugee from Iraq, who said in 2015, ‘This is our exodus’. The judges for this year’s competition were award-winning poet JaneClarke, Aidan Clifford of CDETB’s Curriculum Development Unit and Trocaire’s Trish Groves.
Mairéad is a member of LitLab writing group in Cavan. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies and magazines. She has been shortlisted in national poetry competitions including the Cúirt New Writing Prize and the Doire Press Chapbook Competition. She was the winner of the Ledwidge Poetry Prize in 2013.
Mairéad’s prize is a two-week stay at the prestiguous Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig, a residential workplace and residency programme for artists of all disciplines.