Short story has a happy ending

BARBARA Leahy always wanted to write. But the 39-year-old insurance administrator from Ballinlough in Cork city didn’t know where to start.

Four years ago, she attended a creative writing class at the Cork College of Commerce, and has been winning awards since. She placed third last week in the RTÉ Radio Francis MacManus Short Story Competition and will have her story read on RTÉ Radio 1 tomorrow. Leahy, who received a prize of €1,000, says she is honoured that her story, ‘Whalesong’, will get an airing.

The competition was founded in 1986 in memory of Francis MacManus, the Kilkenny-born writer and former head of talks and features at RTÉ. This year’s competition, which had 800 entries, was won by Bandon-based Beth Tyrell, and Meath man Richard Ball came second.