Ciara Smyth - One Book One County Author Visit with TYs

On Friday, 11th of November 2022, twenty of our transition year students attended an event in Cork County Hall, run by Cork County Library, where students had the opportunity to meet Irish author and social worker, Ciara Smyth, where she spoke with students from a variety of different schools about her new YA (young adult) novel, ‘Not My Problem,’ her first book, ‘The Falling in Love Montage,’ as well as her experience growing up in Monaghan as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.

Ciara Smyth studied drama, teaching, and then social work at university. She thought she didn't know what she wanted to be when she grew up. She became a writer so she wouldn't have to grow up. She enjoys jigging (verb: to complete a jigsaw puzzle), playing the violin badly, and having serious conversations with her pets. Ciara has lived in Belfast for over ten years and still doesn't really know her way around.

A selection of our transition year students travelled to the event which took place in Cork County Hall, where photographs were taken for the Cork County Council, who the school have collaborated with in relation to the reading initiative ‘One County, One Book 2022’ which encourages young people to become more active readers and be introduced to more localised authors.

Smyth spoke about her experience as a writer and what type of writer she wanted to me. Her protagonist character, Aideen, and her difficult home background was inspired by Smyth’s own personal work as a Social Worker and the young people she was met and worked with throughout her career. She spoke about how the Queer representation in her book was seamlessly introduced into her plot as she wanted to write a story that she would have wanted to have read as a young adult, and as a woman who identifies as a lesbian, having an LGBTQ+ couple at the centre of her story was important to her.

Smyth answered many questions from a room of enthusiastic students from KCS and other schools and youth reach organisations from around Cork. Smyth took the time to sign books and speak with the students one on one and this is an opportunity our students greatly appreciated. Smyth confirmed that she is working on a new project at the moment but unfortunately could not delve into much information on this, but the students are delighted to know that more books are in the works at present.

The students showed fantastic enthusiasm at having met Smyth and were very eager to speak with her and share their love for her book, many students claiming that they read her book within one day because they just couldn’t put it down, some students having read it twice. The Transition Year students of KCS were very grateful for the opportunity they were given in meeting the author.

The students, staff and management of KCS would like to thank Ciara Smyth for such an insightful and engaging presentation, and we would like to extend our thanks to Cork County Council for the opportunity to collaborate on the ‘One County, One Book’ initiative, and for the opportunity to meet with the author.