REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF IRELAND’S FIRST LAUREATE FOR CHILDREN’S LIT
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF IRELAND’S FIRST LAUREATE FOR CHILDREN’S LITERATURE, LAUREATE NA N-ÓG
A dhaoine uaisle, tá lúcháir mhór orm bheith anseo libh ar an ócaid speisialta seo. Míle buíochas libh as an chaoin-chuireadh. I would like to thank Pat Moylan for the kind words of welcome and the invitation to announce Ireland’s first Laureate na n-Óg. It is a great and exciting concept that gives long overdue prominence to the books written for and read by our children.
A little over a year ago, the Arts Council and Children’s Books Ireland, along with Poetry Ireland and the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, took their first steps towards creating a brand new role, a laureate for Irish children’s literature. And when the time came to choose the right person, they spoke to libraries, youth organiSations, cultural institutions, publishers, writers, illustrators – and most importantly to Ireland’s vast army of young readers.
They say that “what is written in childhood is engraved in stone”, and so an early love of books is a lifelong investment for if you love the adventure of reading you will have a friend for life and a fulfilling life. Children love stories and for many parents one of the loveliest moments in any day is reading or telling a bedtime story to the very young. We love to see our older children with their noses buried in a book so absorbed, so deeply drawn into the story that they don’t hear you calling them to dinner or forget to tidy their rooms. George Bernard Shaw once said that “imagination is the beginning of creation” and by encouraging our children’s imaginations through reading, we are introducing them not just to a bunch of words, ideas and stories but to their own imagination for themselves and the world around them.
Ireland is famed all over the world for its writers. They were all themselves children once and we can easily forget that something or someone sparked in them the gift of writing – maybe it was a children’s writer when they were young. Writers of books for children get involved in our children’s lives at such an important time in their development. It is a big responsibility to talk through a book to someone who is just beginning to get to know the world and to interrogate it with the unquenchable curiosity of a child. Those words can take a child to places he has never yet visited, to places that do not exist except in the imagination. Those words can make him laugh or weep or feel lonely for a friend who only exists on paper. They can introduce him to the real world, help him to cope between with its ups and downs, allow him to feel respected and understood. Importantly they teach a child that there are 24 more letters in the alphabet besides TV.
Yes our children have a range of technologically sophisticated toys to entertain, educate and amuse them but there is still nothing so intimate, so wonderful as opening a book and taking the personal journey into its story.
Not all writers possess the qualities needed to write children’s literature well but Ireland is so lucky to have a great team of marvelous children’s writers. From among them
we have our new, first ever Laureate for Children’s Literature. Siobhán Parkinson is the acclaimed writer of many wonderful books for children and young people, amongst them ‘Amelia’, ‘Call of the Whales’ and of course the award-winning and wonderfully titled ‘Four Kids, Three Cats, Two Cows, One Witch (maybe)’ which Robert Dunbar described as “one of the best Irish children’s books we’ve ever had.” Besides her talents as a writer, Siobhán also brings to the role her experience as a publisher, academic and commentator. Over the years, she has been an eloquent and passionate advocate for greater recognition of children’s literature. So it’s hardly surprising that the decision to appoint her as the inaugural Laureate na n-Óg was a unanimous one. The next two years as she lives the role of Laureate will in lots of different ways break new ground and set the bar high.
And so it gives me great pleasure to present Siobhán with her new medal of office along with my best wishes for her and all the young readers she will serve.
Go raibh mile maith agaibh