Mairead’s touch of Magic is write stuff

THE first that Mairead O’Connor heard that she had won a nationwide writing competition was when her mother arrived in her school as she was doing Christmas tests.

“I was delighted,” says the 12 year old who is a first-year student at St Mary’s Secondary School in Charleville.

“I could not believe it. We were all asked by our teacher, Miss Elaine O’Connell, to write a story based on a cartoon of a girl in love with this big hairy old yoke. We didn’t have to do it, but my teacher is really nice and I have always loved writing stories so I decided to give it a try.”