THIRTY-six children from Ireland and Russia were awarded prizes for their poetry and stories at the 10th Pushkin Prize awards ceremony at the home of the Duchess of Abercorn in Barons Court, Co Tyrone, yesterday.
The Pushkin Prizes were initiated in 1987 by the duchess to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of her ancestor, the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Since then around 8,000 pupils in 150 schools in Northern Ireland, the Republic and Russia have participated.
The 1997 awards were presented by the Russian poet lrina Ratushinskaya, who spent four years in a Soviet jail for publishing poetry in the west.
The first prize for primary school pupils went to Aisling O'Coineen of the Dalkey School Project in Co Dublin. The upper primary schools top prize went to Frances Harvey of St Patrick's Girls' National School in Carndonagh, Co Donegal, and the secondary schools prize went to Trevor Stewart of Limavady High School, Co Derry.
The special schools prize went to Peter Burke of Harberton Special School in Belfast, and the Russian schools prize to Semeryuk Dasha of School 455 in St Petersburg.
Speaking at the prize-giving, the Duchess of Abercorn said the children who had been writing stories and poems for the competition had been "finding a voice not only for their generation but for Ireland's future. Through these children we are witnessing a new blossoming of imagination.
"Imagination is a capacity we all possess. But we would be mistaken to think it is confined exclusively to the arts. It needs to be applied with equal originality and boldness in business, in politics, in the educational system and in all our relationships.
"Imagination will enable us to reshape and re-create our reality, to regenerate the possibilities stirring in this island and make it once again a `land of heart's desire'."
The Pushkin Prizes Trust, based in Omagh, Co Tyrone, also organises creative writing training conferences for teachers; educational support materials; a summer school for teachers interested in developing their own literary creativity; and exchanges between Irish and Russian schools. A party of 20 Russians, including 12 children, attended yesterday.