'Just Like the Movies' by Caoimhe Ryan

I can guarantee that 99.7% of the world’s population has seen the movie, ‘The Notebook’. Ok, maybe I can’t, but one thing’s for sure, we’re all suckers for cheesy romantic movies. You know, the type where the two main characters are devastatingly attractive. The girl is shy and humble, the guy, popular and outgoing, but they fall for each other. They most certainly have to kiss in the rain.

'In his poetry Hopkins captures the dizzying heights of delight and the depths of despair' by Caitlin Frawley

Gerard Manley Hopkins relied on his poetry to stretch his mind and reach his deepest emotions. He exploited the capacity of the English language, to bring his unique thoughts and perspective to life. Hopkins’ collection displays his ability to reconstruct and reflect on his past highs and lows.

'Boland’s carefully judged use of language aids the reader to uncover the intensity of feeling in her poetry' by Christine Costello

Boland’s unique use of language helps the reader to comprehend the variety of feeling in her poetry. She uses poetic techniques such as imagery, symbolism and metaphors to convey the intense emotions found in her sometimes personal experiences to the reader. The poems where I find this most evident are The F amine Road, Child of our Time, Love and The Pomegranate. These poems showcase both Boland’s style of language and the strong emotions which it portrays. 

Suddenly, Everything Went Black : A short story by James O'Connor (Bl. 1)

The rain belted down relentlessly. The storm was getting worse. Will and Jane were curled up at the stump of an enormous chestnut tree, while Spencer crouched cautiously under a fallen road sign. They were waiting like this for almost ten minutes when Joey and Levi appeared again. "Any luck?" Jane asked, once they were in earshot. "Still no cell service!" Levi panted. "We did spot an old empty house half a mile that way," he added, pointing back up the road.

'Listening into conversations has to be the single most entertaining thing one can do on public transport' by Ciara Olsthoorn

Listening into conversations has to be the single most entertaining thing one can do on public transport. Especially arguments. Darragh loved nothing more than a good argument. Regularly, on his daily commute to and from work, he would pop in headphones, let the lead dangle idly and happily relax and listen to the bizarre snippets of commentary going on around him.

'The Unlikely Hero' by Anna Kinsella, Bliain 2

The crisp, brown leaves swept gracefully along the sidewalk. The last remnants of the sun had just disappeared leaving nothing but a sky as black as ink. The streetlamp outside the house was flickering. She edged closer towards it. There were goosebumps on Clodagh’s arms; she had no jacket. She ran from the orphanage as soon as she had realised what happened.

“The manner in which texts conclude and the impact such conclusions have on a reader often help construct the GVVP of those texts.” by Aoise Kennedy, Jack O Callaghan & Karl English.

“The manner in which texts conclude and the impact such conclusions have on a reader often help construct the GVVP of those texts.”

With reference to three texts in your comparative course, compare how the conclusion of each text, and its impact on you, helped to construct the general vision and viewpoint of these texts. Support your answer with reference to the texts.

I wholeheartedly agree with the above statement that the manner in which texts conclude impact the reader and often help construct the general vision and viewpoint (GVVP) of those texts. During my course I have studied ‘The Plough and the Stars’ by Séan O Casey (TPATS), ‘The King’s Speech’ directed by Tom Hooper (TKS), and ‘Foster’ by Claire Keegan. During my study I found that the conclusion of the text firmly dictated my overall GVVP of the text.

'They Make Manipulation a Virtue' by Ciara Olsthoorn

Darragh inhaled deeply, sucking the cigarette fumes into his lungs and exhaled in the general direction of the car’s open window, tipping the ashes outside over the door. He scratched his head, pushing back the tangled hair that hung over his eyes like a mop, staring at the sheet he'd printed out off some vegan blog. The article was about these smoothies that had recently gone on sale in his locality. For all the world they looked like blended grass, or a mud pie his son Ross had made years ago, but no; according to Vegan_Sam123 they were “food for the soul”, organic, preservative free and supported his persona of being a “life enthusiast”. “If he can make money out of selling mud then so can I,” Darragh thought.

'Today's obsession with the rich and famous has gone too far' by Deirbhile Ryan

"Today's obsession with the rich and famous has gone too far" 

Deirbhile Ryan

Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian are just three of the richest and most famous people of today. I can almost guarantee that everyone in this room has read a headline concerning them in the last few weeks, if not days. One of the most worrying things for me as a teenager, is that everybody around me idolises these people for doing... wait, I actually don't know what they do that is so great. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Deirbhile Ryan and I am here today to convince you that our obsession with the rich and famous has gone too far.

‘A reader’s view of a theme or issue can be either changed or reinforced through interaction with texts’ by Eimear Dollard

Through my study of texts on the comparative course, my opinions on the theme of forbidden relationships have either changed drastically or been reinforced due to my interaction with these texts.  ‘How Many Miles to Babylon?’ by Jennifer Johnston, ‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Colm Tóibín’s ‘Brooklyn’ have equipped me with valuable insight into this theme.  My study of key moments in all three novels has aided greatly in my accumulation of knowledge regarding this subject.