“Every morning, brilliant new stories are written by primary schoolchildren. They are all stored in our library (the stories, not the children)”.
The vision of Fighting Words is simple – to give children and young people (as well as adults who did not have the chance as children) the opportunity to discover and harness the power of their own imaginations and creative writing skills.
Images by Gerard McCarthy
Fighting Words is also about something much broader and more inclusive – using creative writing and storytelling to strengthen our children and teenagers to be resilient, creative and successful shapers of their own lives. This engagement positively impacts on their personal, social and academic development – leading to increased levels of engagement not just with creative writing but also with the whole school experience, and each other.
In the first 10 years after its establishment – by Roddy Doyle and Seán Love in 2009 – Fighting Words was able to provide free tutoring, mentoring and publishing in creative writing to more than 120,000 children and young people. Since then, the Creative Ireland Programme has partnered with Fighting Words to further expand this reach – to almost every corner of Ireland, thereby ensuring that even greater numbers of children and young people get the opportunity to become an author.
