It is believed that the short story, ‘The Happy Prince’, was inspired by Oscar Wilde’s memory as a schoolboy at Portora Royal School (1864-71) whilst looking out from his dormitory window across Enniskillen island town to the statue on Cole’s Monument on the opposite hill, high above the town.

This was the curatorial impetus for Seán Doran’s vision for the literary heritage tourism project, ‘Wilde Island Town (WIT): Home of the Happy Prince’, which gave birth to an ambitious town-wide public art installation of 150 gold leaf swallows entitled ‘The Flight of the Little Golden Swallow’, designed by local artists Simon Carman and Helen Sharp to mark the 150th anniversary of Oscar Wilde’s last year in Enniskillen.

As a fitting culmination of the WIT project, the special illustrated book of ‘The Happy Prince’ by Oscar Wilde, showcases the creative work of local Enniskillen schoolchildren, was recently launched.

The young contributors, along with their families and teachers, were invited to attend a celebratory tea party event hosted at Forthill Park Pleasure Grounds in Enniskillen on the morning of Wednesday, June 14.

“We would like to give a heartfelt thank-you to the hundreds of beautiful competition entries from collages to sketches to paintings that were submitted by pupils across Enniskillen’s primary and post-primary schools,” said Sally Rees, WILDETHINGS Project Support and Coordinator, The Flight of The Little Golden Swallow.

She continued: “The hard task to select the final chosen pieces for the publication fell to our judge, Toni Johnson, who deserves special thanks for building a solid creative foundation in the community of Enniskillen through her inspirational work with generations of young people, both inside and outside of the classroom, encouraging and cajoling them to express themselves through art.

“With this celebratory publication, we hope ‘The Happy Prince’ has been brought back home, to the place of its inspiration, Enniskillen.

“We hope that The Prince’s faithful companion, the Little Swallow, is now immortalised in this town’s literary legacy through The Flight of the Little Golden Swallow, and will live on in the hearts and minds of future generations of children in Enniskillen, Fermanagh and beyond.

“May we all embrace its values of compassion, kindness and empathy wherever we go,” added Sally.

During the event, the teachers in attendance were gifted copies of the special edition of The Happy Prince illustrated by the young people, to share with their school community.