Ireland’s Spelling Bee – 2015
The Eason National Spelling Bee competition is fast becoming the highlight of many school kids year. This hotly anticipated annual event is etched in the calendars of 11 and 12 year olds up and down the country. Kids for whom words like “Micromorphology”, “Quintuplicate” and “Isolationism” just roll off the tongue. In 2015 thousands of these children from schools all over Ireland competed in this prestigious competition in the hope of being crowned the All Ireland Spelling Bee Champion.
In this fascinating documentary we meet some of these amazing children as they prepare for the biggest test of their young lives. The result is an inspirational film that captures the next generation of young Irish people and their determination to make their schools and families proud. They share their love of words and of learning and they share their hopes and dreams for the future. From the County finals to the nerve-wrecking Provincial Finals on the Ryan Tubridy radio show on RTÉ 2FM, these children experienced tension, panic, disappointment and elation with every word and every syllable spelled as the nation listened with bated breath.
Jean-Ted Deliev from Cabra in Dublin came through one of the toughest county finals in the competition to become Dublin Champion. We meet Jean-Ted with his half Bulgarian/half Irish family as he prepares for the Leinster final in the D Hotel, Drogheda. We spend time with all singing, all dancing drama-school kid Hollie Hannon who represented Sligo in the Connaught Final held in the Glasshouse Hotel in Sligo Town. Sport fanatic Conor O’Flynn from West Cork worked his way up to represent his county at the Munster Final held in the Easons shop on Patrick Street in Cork city. We followed multi-instrumentalist Cian McCloskey as he, accompanied by his former professional boxer Dad Paul, attended the Ulster final in The Abbey Hotel, Donegal town where he represented Derry. We also followed hometown champion Tiarnan McGlinchy, from Ballyliffin, as he represented Donegal at the Ulster final.
The programme culminates with the 4 provincial champions competing in a nail-biting All Ireland Final held in RTÉ.
The Bee, RTÉ One on Sunday 30th August at 18:30.
Produced by Mind the Gap Films for RTÉ