Scriptorium for the young

On Tuesday afternoon in the Ark in Temple Bar, the bottles of coke and orange were broken open to launch Write Here! Write Now! This is where pupils in fifth class at primary level and fifth year at secondary level get their opportunity to write on parchment, like the monks of old.

May 12th has been designated Millennium Book Day. Pupils will be invited to put down their thoughts, likes, dislikes, and blots on sheets of parchment that day. Four thousand sheets will be selected at random from some 120,000 sheets, and bound together in a 25-volume book which will be held in the National Library.

Downing orange juice and chocolate muffins were the entire 5th class of the two-teacher Curraha NS in Co Meath, Daniel Haughton, Marie Laffey, Peter Walsh, and Niamh O'Connor. The 11-year-olds were there with teacher Lilah Blount. "Is your name really Lilah?" marvelled young Peter. "We never knew that."

Writer Deirdre Purcell, The Den presenter, Damien McCaul, and Minister Seamus Brennan, who is chairman of the National Millennium Committee, all said a few words. Among the guests wearing the jolly promotional stickers on their lapels were Maureen Leavy of the TUI; John White of ASTI; and Sean Harkin of the Department of Education. Whether the humble biro lasts on parchment as well as the illuminated inks of the centuries-old Book of Kells, time will tell.