Tag Archives: john dolan

Soap stars!

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Mark Kelleher, one of our MA students, has been commissioned to write a 12-episode online soap opera which will appear in the Evening Echo http://www.eveningecho.ie/ this summer.  The project is part of a new association between Examiner publications and the newly established Writing for Media module (EN6057) on the MA in Creative Writing.

Eight students pitched soap ideas and wrote three pilot episodes as part of their final portfolio for the module.  Features editor of the Echo, John Dolan, and his deputy, Elaine Duggan, made the final decision on which idea they would commission on the strength of these submissions.

After much deliberation, John said they went for Mark’s entry, entitled “Scattered” whose hero is a Cork street cleaner.

“We loved the strong Cork city setting for the story, and the excellent descriptive style throughout. The story gripped us from the start with its fine blend of dark topics and light moods and after introducing us to Timmy Riordan, the plot swiftly took us on unexpected turns. The subject matter of male suicide is very topical and very serious and if the story can touch local people who have had, or will have, an experience of this, directly or indirectly, it may well do some good.”

John said he was “overwhelmed” by what he called “the amazing standard” of all the submissions. It was such a difficult task choosing an overall winner, he said, that he decided to nominate a runner-up – PhD creative writing candidate Fiona Whyte.

Her soap, “Legacy”,  will appear as a short story in the annual Holly Bough, which John also edits. As you might guess from the title, there’s money and a will involved in this one!

Watch out for “Scattered” which will be appearing some time in mid-summer and congrats to Mark and Fiona, and indeed all the students who came up with such a diverse range of ideas for the project. We’re really grateful to John Dolan and Elaine Duggan, who advised on the project, and to Evening Echo editor Maurice Gubbins who started the ball rolling on this late last year.

We’re hoping that it’s the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship!