Hi, I’m Sara O’Grady (5th class) and I recently took part in the Eason’s County Carlow Spelling Bee final. The event was held in Grange Hall.

Leading up to the Spelling-bee, Mr Byrne (4th class teacher) gave me a few sheets with a list of commonly misspelled words on each sheet followed with practices with Mr. Byrne on break. It was very useful both for the competition and just in general for when I’m writing.

The 8th of May came, and that morning I got ready like usual, except I wasn’t going to school. It felt great as my siblings had to go. At around 10:30 me and my parents left to go to Grange.

When we arrived I was slightly confused because firstly, there were what I thought to be only enough cars for the staff of Grange, I just assumed that I was one of the earlier ones, and secondly, there were a few Grange students outside the main door, almost as if there were waiting for somebody. It turns out they were waiting for me. One student escorts each finalist to the hall. It made the whole Spelling-bee affair seem very posh and serious. The walk to Grange Hall had many turns with paintings on each wall. The hall was simply a slightly big room with a mini-stage at one wall with benches for me and my opponents facing into the few rows of audience.

After I registered, I was handed a commemorative T-shirt to wear during the Spelling-bee. Then a really enthusiastic lady started going thoroughly through the rules and how she was going to be our Spelling-bee master. After each person got called up, I realized there were only 6 people! Apparently there have been 50 people before but I was still very nervous. And then we started with a practice round where I got the word “yard” which was easy, yet I felt like I could spell it wrong. Then we had our first round which every person spelt correctly, I got the word “garage”. Now the third round wasn't too hard but one boy spelt “achievement” wrong, and the boy representing Tullow-boys spelt “hallmark” wrong. Round 3, 4 people remaining I can’t recall but another boy misspelled another word.

Round 4 the girl from Grange stood up and got the word “magnesium” and spelt it right. And it was my turn now, I stood up and the lady said “emancipate” I’ve heard of it but I never read it so I wasn't sure, my mind was racing, I nervously said

“ i-m-a-n-c-i-p-a-t-e” I sat back down and in what seemed like forever she said “incorrect”, my heart sank, “but looking at how you spelt it phonetically, so well done” the adjudicator said. Then the boy next to me spelt “implicit” correctly. So they had a sudden-death round, where the Grange girl spelt “correspond” wrong, and all the boy had to spell was “identification” which he spelt correctly so he won and I sat in 3rd.

Which I am delighted about but I fear “emancipate” will be etched in my brain forever. For coming that far I got a 15% off voucher from Eason’s. I must say I was rather shocked with the numbers of people and rounds. But I found it a nerve-wrecking yet fun experience and hope I can try again next year.

Postscript

In our school spelling bee, Sara was the winner with Madisyn Doyle as runner up and Noah Flynn taking 3^rd place.