‘Sandy Seal’ to be Glengarriff’s new mascot

By Conor Power

THE Glengarriff Community Development Group has created a village mascot and launched a  storytelling quest to help promote the beautiful seashore village.

The group is offering storytellers the opportunity to get involved with a paid writing assignment that will become part of the ‘story of Glengarriff’.

The project centres around the creation of the character of Sandy Seal, who is to become the new village mascot. The fictional marine mammal is described by the group as a ‘brave, fearless soul, full of courage and kindness’ and with ‘quite a personality’.

While the outline of the character of Sandy Seal has already been drawn, it will be up to someone else to carry the torch forward and create an exciting and inspiring storyline or storylines for Sandy, who ‘has many adventures to share’.

This is an open call to would-be authors who can present a convincing set of ideas over one or two pages, of between 500 and 1,000 words.

The author of the winning entry will be invited by the development group to develop their ideas further, at which point a fee will be agreed. The story will be developed with the writer, with the intention of creating an illustrated storybook. 

This narrative will become the basis for the introduction of Sandy through a variety of media and will become part of the ‘story of               Glengarriff’.

Seals are an integral part of the heritage of Glengarriff harbour. A constant background presence to the village, they are the focus of many of the thousands of tourists who come to Glengarriff every year.

The initiative of using the story of Sandy Seal is quite a unique approach to promote the area.

‘The idea for using a seal as a mascot for Glengarriff came from the group about 12 months ago,’ said chairman Nuala Carey. 

‘We looked at the success of our village Fairy Walk and came up with the seal concept to enhance the existing route, with a story around one of the many seals that live in our bay.  With the help and support of Cork County Council, the Fairy Walk route, at the Blue Pool, directly adjacent to the village, is being considerably enhanced and we wish to provide an amenity for families and children to explore the area while learning about our seal along the way.’

Organisers say a panel of judges will assess the entries on the basis of ideas, style, imaginative content and the quality of writing.

Entries should be submitted by email to [email protected] and no later than March 10th.