I found following competition in the Irish Independent, what a great challenge I thought to myself, so I am copy-catting the whole thing and do my own Dock Blogger Competition out of it, to fill the quiet summer hole. Let’s see who will rise to the occasion, I am sure there are great six-word-stories to be had! Here you go folks:

Legend has it that in a smoky bar in the 1920’s Ernest Hemmingway’s colleagues bet him that he couldn’t write a complete story in six words. To cut a long story short, he did, and he believed the resulting short story to be his best work. What he wrote was

‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn.’

If you would like to test your literary mettle, take the Hemmingway challenge and send me your six-word-story. Each week for the summer months I will publish the best entry on The Dock Blogger’s Facebook page and the winner gets a free drink in the Jury Room Café Bar. Only rule is that the story must be six words. No more, no less.

I give you a couple of published ones to give you an idea, and I think they are brilliant!

‘Hands trembling, I opened his will.’ (Mary Leonard-Walsh, Cork)

Terrified, she learned not to scream.’ (Maire Lynam, Donegal)

You can see why and where punctuation comes into the picture! Enjoy the challenge, good luck!

Your Dock Blogger

In the last few days at The Dock I watched ladders being shifted and carried around, artists and technicians alike looking preoccupied and rather busy, the paint buckets came out and some serious installing went on behind those gallery doors! If you are free tomorrow - Friday the 29th of June - come along to the opening of our summer exhibition The Border at about 5.30pm. Great fun to be had, a nice chat, some good art and meeting the artists, or just a wander through the galleries. I can't help mentioning Jo and Mike Lewis' catering again, mmmm, they get me every time, best nibbles in the county in my humble opinion!

'This exciting new exhibition is an invitation to re-think and re-imagine the theory and practice of border making. The show features three artists whose individual projects raise questions about borders in their many manifestations... geographic, architectural, physical, conceptual... questions that might apply to our own locality as much as they might globally.'

Lets check this out

See you tomorrow, Your Dock Blogger

Carrick on Shannon Water Music Festival was officially launched earlier this evening at The Dock. Ed Deane provided fabulous music and the lovely Ursula Connolly entertained us with an impromptu rendition of Blue Moon. A great turn out and festival founder Fr. Turlough Baxter returned especially to Carrick on Shannon to formally launch this years feast of Music. Get booking those Tickets folks - 2 weeks to go and Nathalia is waiting for your call to the Dock (071 9650828) to take that booking. Let the music begin!