Cloud Of Think

Coláiste an Spioraid Naoimh’s Creative Writing Website

It’s been ten years since my colleague Diarmaid Shortall and I set about solving a problem. We wanted to provide a means for pupils to create that spoke as much – or more – to their world as it did to ours.

It had to be digital so Diarmaid used WordPress, a website service, to design a platform to facilitate pupils in their endeavours. We had in mind a magazine-style publication on-line.

The idea was to encourage the process of writing, of opinion-formation, of thought-provocation and to publish the results of that process on-line where pupils could see each other’s work and where the greater community could go to explore their ideas. 

In conjunction with tutorial classes, book clubs, competitions and any number of less formal interactions, the website became a locus, a destination for good quality writing. “Editing” became a familiar word, that and “craft,” “toil,” “tone,” “mood,” “research” and “process.”

The ambition was always to encourage pupils to think about how our thoughts become a currency that is traded, how ideas are shared and appreciated, even when (or maybe especially when) they appear at first to be at odds.

The result has been a journey of endeavour, an awareness of the value of work as it applies to our thoughts. We’ve tried to provide content with a wide appeal and hope that with new tutors such as Katie Long and ever-replenished ranks of writers that we can keep this going long into the future.

We invite you to explore at cloudofthink.ie and participate in this occasionally perilous, sometimes arduous, often rewarding and always imaginative journey of writing.