Shipwreck the subject of Irish Society's essay contest

For the 28th year, the Irish Cultural Society will hold its annual writing contest this spring for high school students throughout Nassau County.

The ninth through 12th graders entering the contest will use information from the Titanic tragedy for their story material. They can choose to enter in one of two approaches: interview one of the Irish passengers on the Titanic when it collided with an iceberg and sank (about 500 words) or write a short-short story (about 1500 words) relating an encounter between two of the Titanic’s Irish passengers who met before the crash of ship and iceberg. The names of the Irish passengers about the Titanic are included in materials describing the contest, which have been mailed to the English departments of Nassau schools, public and private, and posted on the Society’s web site, www.irish-society.org.

The web site also contains “Helpful Hints” — suggestions to the contestants about how to research and write the story. All entries are due by March 17.

The Society has been sponsoring a writing contest for 28 years, and this year 38 prizes will be awarded from $250 to $30 on May 2 at the Garden City Library. Every entrant will receive a Certificate of Merit mailed to the student’s sponsoring teacher. The library of the schools that have submitted an entry will receive a book on an Irish subject in appreciation of the role libraries play in promoting literacy.

Interested students can get copies of the material for the contest from their schools’ English departments and on the Society’s web site.