Wins for young artists from Nenagh and Ballina

Five Tipperary students have won top prizes in this year’s 69th Texaco Children’s Art Competition, including a first-placed winner from Nenagh.

In the 14-15 years age category, Ailbhe Treacy (age 14), a pupil at St Mary's Secondary School, Nenagh, won first prize for her artwork entitled ‘Me And My Mam’. Her portrait of her mother and herself as a child is described by Final Adjudicator, Professor Gary Granville as “a warm and affectionate study”.

No stranger to the Competition, Ailbhe won second prize in the 12 - 13 years age category in 2021.

In addition, four Tipperary winners each won Special Merit Awards for artworks that Professor Granville said “were imaginative and displayed high levels of skill and creativity”.

They were Anna Chirubvu (18) from Scoil Ruáin, Thurles; Cormac Boylan (14) from Presentation Secondary School, Thurles; Donnacha Stritch (8) from Ballina Primary School and Sophie Stanley (6) from Powerstown National School, Clonmel. A previous winner, Anna won a Special Merit Award in the same category of the 2021 Competition.

The Texaco Children’s Art Competition is popularly regarded as the longest-running sponsorship in the history of arts sponsoring in Ireland, with an unbroken history that dates back to the very first competition held in 1955. This year, as has been the case throughout its life, it has been a platform on which young artists from Tipperary and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended.