King of the Bees

Words and pictures taken from Cork County Council Website. https://www.corkcoco.ie/en/news/ode-local-hero-song-performances-winning-school-and-cork-bard-john-spillane

As part the Heritage in Schools Programme, supported by the Heritage Council, in conjunction with Cork County Council through the Creative Ireland Programme, a fascinating competition open to all schools in the County of Cork took place. This was a song competition with local heritage as the theme.

From the middle of May, last month, Áine Brosnan, Archaeologist on the panel for the Heritage in Schools Scheme, went to participating schools and took the children on a fieldtrip to visit a local monument. Then it was back to the classroom where the children wrote their ‘Odes to their local hero’ who may have lived at the monument.

All kinds of sites were visited from Castles to Stone Circles, Stone Rows, Abbeys, a martello tower on a tropical island and a Clock Tower. The children’s ages varied from jnr and snr infants to 6 th class students. Each Ode was absolutely fantastic in its own right so the job of choosing winners was taken on by Cork Bard John Spillane - a really difficult task!!! On Wednesday 26th June, the winners, who won a workshop with John Spillane to help them develop their Ode into a song, performed their songs following a short Concert with John Spillane himself. The event commenced at 1pm in Vertigo (Floor 17 of the County Hall).

Three winning schools (tied first)

Gurraneasig NS Muinefluice NS Clogagh NS

The song by Timoleague was highly recommended and therefore included in the performance also.