The Regional Writing Centre is delighted to announce our shortlist of winners for the Eleventh Annual National Secondary School Essay Writing Competition. Due to the low number of submissions this year, we are combining the categories of transition year and fifth year, meaning there is one overall winner and two runners up. All who have submitted essays to us this year should be very proud of all the hard work and dedication put in. As always, the Regional Writing Centre thanks you for your participation.

We will be holding a online ceremony this year to congratulate all the winners! We have chosen to not disclose the information of who placed where! We wish to announce this during the ceremony to give them the congratulations the deserve. We hope that their friends, family and teachers will join us on May 26th to celebrate their achievement. Further details will be confirmed with the students via email closer to the time!

So without further ado the three winners are:

Overall Winner- Jasmine Gillan, Méan Scoil Nua an Leith Triuigh, Co. Kerry.

Runner- Up- Nele Prenzel, Sandford Park School, Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

Runner-Up- Rachel Feeley, Mercy Mounthawk Secondary School, Co. Kerry.

On May 26th, these shortlisted entrants will be welcomed to an online ceremony to announce the order of winners. The overall winner will be awarded an Android tablet, with each runner-up receiving a One-For-All voucher valued at €100.

Finally, we reiterate our gratitude to all competition entrants who worked so hard on their essays. Thank you too to all of our Readers/Judges for volunteering for the weeks of reading and taking on the difficult work of selecting winners from a large number of very good essay submissions. A list of our essay judges has been included below.

Míle Buíochas

Joel John Alumthara.

Zoha Panezai.

Eirnini Polychronaki.