We're off to a great start this week, as novelist, broadcaster and dad, Joseph O'Connor, launched StorySpark on Monday night here at the Ark (you can read an excerpt of his speech here). His son James also came along and contributed a few stories to the archives in StoryLab – listen out for his contributions at StoryLab this weekend! Sneak previews of the StoryLab and the Reading Room are here in Children's Books Ireland's photos from the launch night.
We were up bright and early the next day to welcome 1st and 2nd class from St. Catherine's N.S. for the Telling Point with master storyteller Liz Weir, and storytelling workshops with the fantastic Clare Muireann Murphy, ably assisted by the Ark staff and volunteers. The boys and girls gave us some great 'What If?' stories about mean Cinderellas, friendly hedgehogs, and a Little Blue Riding Hood who doesn't need a woodcutter to save her.
Today's groups from St. Declan's N.S. were equally brilliant, telling us all about flying horses, how dolphins learned to jump, and why frogs don't have any teeth.
Some of their stories are now in the audio archives: their drawings and writings will also be on the wall for this weekend's StoryLab, so come along to look, listen, and contribute your own!
Tomorrow we'll welcome some more school groups as well as some special guests (watch this space), and get ready for the Reading Room with Derek Landy, Anthony McGowan, Roddy Doyle and Frank Cottrell Boyce at the weekend!
Next week it's master storyteller Niall de Búrca's turn at the Telling Point: listen to him on Elev8 here (approx. 15 minutes in).
- Caoileann Appleby, StorySpark Project Manager
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