A graduate of a Masters degree in creative writing at Sussex has won a short-story competition run by the Irish Post.

Carmel Walsh’s tale ‘From A Land Beyond The Wave’ was chosen from scores of entries.

Her prize includes a trip to next month’s prestigious Listowel Writers’ Festival in County Kerry and a cheque for 500 Euros.

Carmel graduated with an MA in Creative Writing and Authorship from the University of Sussex in 2010.

She is currently working as a secondary English teacher in Brighton and writing her first novel.

The short story, which is based around her own experiences of growing up in a London-Irish community and around the 1994 World Cup, is an edited extract from the book.

Carmel told the Irish Post: "Whilst doing my Masters I interviewed my family and many people from the London Irish community about what it was like travelling over from Ireland in the 1950s and the struggles that they faced when they got here."