Young Storykeeper Volume III
To celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg, Great Lighthouses of Ireland and Fighting Words invited 7-12 year-olds to become Young Storykeepers. Your lighthouse-inspired stories are incredible! Fighting Words and Great Lighthouses of Ireland have devoured every single one of the 1,256 stories, poems, illustrations, song lyrics and even stop-motion animations submitted for the Young Storykeepers initiative. With so many entries, these wonderful works will be showcased in a multi-volume Young Storykeepers digital magazine over the coming months.
To celebrate Cruinniú na nÓg, Great Lighthouses of Ireland and Fighting Words invited 7-12 year-olds to become Young Storykeepers. Your lighthouse-inspired stories are incredible!
Fighting Words and Great Lighthouses of Ireland have devoured every single one of the 1,256 stories, poems, illustrations, song lyrics and even stop-motion animations submitted for the Young Storykeepers initiative.
With so many entries, these wonderful works will be showcased in a multi-volume Young Storykeepers digital magazine over the coming months.
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36 | STORYKEEPERS VOLUME <strong>III</strong> AGE SEVEN | 37<br />
THE MERMAID AT THE LIGHTHOUSE<br />
THE SHIPPYS’ LIGHTHOUSE<br />
CALIN AND HIS LIGHTHOUSE<br />
A long time ago there was a blue and red lighthouse. A man<br />
lived in the lighthouse. He had a wife and a daughter, and her<br />
name was Lyla Rose.<br />
The lighthouse was on a rocky island.<br />
One night, Lyla heard a noise! It was a singing sound.<br />
She walked down the three hundred steps to get to the door.<br />
She was tired and scared. Lyla looked out of the door.<br />
She saw a girl, but it was not an ORDINARY girl. She<br />
had a fish tail. She had purple, pink and brown hair. She had<br />
a tiara.<br />
She was a mermaid!<br />
The mermaid was so surprised. She dived into the<br />
ocean!<br />
Lyla went after her. But she tripped and<br />
slid into the water. The mermaid looked up and<br />
found Lyla drowning. She swam as fast as<br />
lightening to the surface with Lyla.<br />
Once Lyla was dry and safe on<br />
land, she asked the mermaid what was her<br />
name. “My name is Princess Seashell.”<br />
Lyla asked Seashell if she wanted<br />
to be friends.<br />
Seashell said “Yes” so Lyla and<br />
Seashell lived happily ever<br />
after!<br />
Co<br />
Alison Cabello<br />
Dublin<br />
In the cleanest lighthouse in Ireland there<br />
lived a man named Mr Shippy and his wife<br />
named Mrs Shippy. Usually it was peaceful<br />
in their humble lighthouse, but not today.<br />
The huge light that warned ships about<br />
the enormous and dangerous cliffs around<br />
Aranmore in County Donegal was broken.<br />
Mr Shippy was very worried. There was<br />
a storm due that night. Storm Tara was going<br />
to be wild. Mrs Shippy was doing her best<br />
to calm Mr Shippy down, but it was no use.<br />
She made him a cup of hot tea and some of<br />
her homemade chocolate chip cookies, but<br />
it was impossible to settle him.<br />
“What are we going to do? There have<br />
been boats heading out to sea all week that<br />
are due back tonight,” Mr Shippy cried.<br />
Mrs Shippy said, “There is nothing you<br />
can do, Dónal. You have tried your best to fix<br />
that old light. We will just have to pray and<br />
hope for the best.”<br />
Before Mr and Mrs Shippy lay down to<br />
sleep, they prayed for the poor sailors out on<br />
the Atlantic Ocean that night.<br />
In the middle of the night, Mr and Mrs<br />
Shippy could hear whooshing and splashing.<br />
One minute later Mr and Mrs Shippy heard<br />
a loud bang.<br />
“Oh, dear me! What was that, Brigid?”<br />
Mr Shippy shouted.<br />
Mr Shippy ran down the winding stairs,<br />
grabbed a torch and threw open the front<br />
door. He slowly climbed down the rocky<br />
path towards the small beach below. The<br />
first thing he saw was a fishing boat up on a<br />
rock. He ran over and got onboard the boat.<br />
He saw two men. One man had a bleeding<br />
leg and the other had a small cut on his face.<br />
Mr Shippy realised that this man with the<br />
cut on his face was Bob O’Brien. The other<br />
man was Seamus O’Malley. He couldn’t<br />
speak as he had been knocked out.<br />
Mr Shippy helped Bob to lift Seamus<br />
off the boat and up to the lighthouse where<br />
Seamus slowly came round. Mrs Shippy<br />
made them all a hot drink and gave them<br />
blankets. Mrs Shippy made up some beds<br />
for the two fishermen and said that they<br />
would have to stay the night as it was a long<br />
way to the village.<br />
In the morning Mr Shippy took the<br />
two men to the village in his cart and their<br />
families were so relieved to see them both<br />
well. Bob’s little son, James came running<br />
towards them and ran into his daddy’s arms.<br />
Mr and Mrs Shippy were seen as local heroes<br />
and lived happily in their humble home for<br />
the rest of their lives.<br />
And what about that broken light on the<br />
lighthouse? The villagers made sure that it<br />
was fixed that very same day.<br />
Eimear Donnelly<br />
Co Armagh<br />
Once there was a man called Calin and he worked as<br />
a lighthouse keeper for over fifty years. Calin enjoyed<br />
working as a lighthouse keeper like all of his family<br />
before him. But his real passion was magic.<br />
So Calin performed magic at children’s parties.<br />
One day, when he was practicing a sword swallowing<br />
act beside his lighthouse when a sudden wave took<br />
him off his feet and shoved the sword down his throat.<br />
When he was recovering, Calin met a lady and<br />
they had twins named Finn and Nuala. They played<br />
with jumping clay all the time.<br />
In the 17th century, a war came and the lighthouse<br />
was forced to close down. One year later they got an<br />
award for the oldest lighthouse in the world.<br />
Elliot McKeating<br />
Co Antrim<br />
THE THREE MERMAIDS AND THE<br />
LIGHTHOUSE<br />
Once upon a time, there were three mermaids. Their<br />
names were Sera, Mia and Waves. They were the<br />
best of friends. They lived in Meraway Cove. One<br />
day, when the girls were out swimming, they found a<br />
lighthouse with a secret tunnel leading to it.<br />
The swam into the tunnel, but the door got stuck.<br />
The mermaids were very afraid. Just then, a kind<br />
lighthouse keeper called Tom heard them crying and<br />
helped them to get free. The mermaids were so happy.<br />
“Thank you!” they said and swam home together.<br />
Aoibh Sheridan<br />
Co Dublin