Broadcast date set for John's story

Kilcullen hits the national airways yet again on Wednesday 16 July, when John Martin's play 'Head Shot' will be broadcast on RTE Radio 1, writes Brian Byrne.

That's just one of three pieces of good news for members of the Kilcullen Writing Group, which meets regularly in O'Connell's Bar during the autumn-spring period. Annemarie Myles (pictured on right with John) recently won the short story competition in the June Fest in Newbridge, and Bernadette Melia has a story in a recently-published anthology connected with the Dunlavin Arts festival.

John's story made the short-list in the annual Francis McManus Short Story Competition on RTE Radio One. It's about a young man who gets involved in a Dublin crime gang, and will be broadcast on the above date at 11.02pm. The Francis MacManus competition selected 24 of the entries for broadcast in the competition, which commemorates the Kilkenny-born novelist, short story writer, biographer and former Head of Talks and Features at Radió Éireann.

Annemarie's story was based on a family experience of finding old insurance policies taken out by her late father, found only when her mother died some time after him. At the time of writing, we don't have details of Bernadette's story, but we will rectify that the first chance we get.

Congratulations to all three. Writing isn't easy, and winning awards and publication even harder.