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Poetry Pillar Competition Prizegiving
The prizegiving for the ATU Poetry Pillar competition took place on Friday, 5 May 2023 at ATU Mayo campus. In the secondary school Transition Year (TY) category, students from Davitt College in Castlebar filled the top three spots. Eva Garayalde won the TY category for her poem entitled “Dreamscapes”. The TY competition second place prize winner was Alan Nolan, and the third place prize winner was Rory Lowe Walsh.
Eilish McDonagh from ATU Mayo won the ATU student category with her poem entitled “United in Biodiversity”. Eilish is a student on the Masters of Science in Outdoor Education, Sustainability and Wellbeing programme. The ATU second place prize winner was Andrew Goodison and the third place prize winner was Anbar Butt.
Eilish McDonagh, winner of the ATU student category
Anne Donnelly, Judging Panel Chairperson, welcomed the winners to ATU Mayo. She said: “The judging panel really enjoyed reading this year’s entries on the theme of Biodiversity. The standard of entries was very high, and it proved to be a difficult task to pick the winners. Well done to all who entered.”
Dr Orla Flynn, ATU President presented the winners in both categories with their prizes and Dr Deirdre Garvey, Head of Department, Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences, ATU Mayo presented the second and third place winners with their prizes.
The Poetry Pillar competition is a collaboration between Green Campus, ATU Galway- Mayo, the ATU Sustainability Office, ATU School Liaison Team, Students’ Union and ATU Library Mayo.
Dr Deirdre Garvey, Head of Department, Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences said: “It is a pleasure to link with local schools, the TY co-ordinators and their students in such a creative way around the important topic of biodiversity. A special thank you to the organiser (Sheila McArdle) and the judging panel who generously gave their time and expertise to the competition.”
Engraved plaques of both poems are installed on ATU’s poetry pillar in St Mary’s Courtyard Garden at ATU Mayo. ATU plan to run the competition again for the academic year 2023/24. The theme and competition details will be circulated to schools at the start of the next academic year.
