An Ireland of Inclusion" - 1848 Tricolour Essay Competition in South Dublin

07/03/2014

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An Ireland of Inclusion” – 1848 Tricolour Essay Competition in South Dublin

The Irish tricolour was created by Young Irelander Thomas Francis Meagher and first flown in Waterford City in 1848. It famously represents peace (white) between Catholics (green) and Protestants (orange).

This year, Waterford City Council are organising a celebration of the tricolour, during which two tricolours will be presented to the Chair/Mayor of each local authority in Ireland. One of these flags will be permanently situated in the county/city headquarters of each authority – the other is to be presented to a school in the area.

The school in South Dublin County will be selected by way of an essay competition run by Mayor Dermot Looney, in conjunction with South Dublin Libraries and the Echo Newspaper Group. The competition will be open to students in post-primary schools across the county. All schools will be informed by way of email.

The school of the winning student will be awarded the official Tricolour for South Dublin by the Mayor in April at a reception in County Hall, Tallaght. The Mayor will also be available to attend any flag-raising ceremony at the school.

Individual prizes will be awarded for the top three essays, and each entrant will receive a certificate of entry from the Mayor.

The winning essay will be published in full in the newspapers published by the Echo as well as on the South Dublin County Council website.

The title of the essay will be “An Ireland of Inclusion,” asking students to articulate their vision for the country, taking inspiration from the flag’s message of inclusiveness for the modern day. There will be a 1,000 word limit and entries will be accepted in English or as Gaeilge with a maximum of three entries per school.

Students should include their name, their school’s name and email address and their year. The competition entries should be entitled ‘An Ireland of Inclusion” – 1848 Tricolour Essay Competition and entriesshould be submitted by email to mayor@sdublincoco.ie

The judging panel is comprised of:

David Kennedy, Founder of The Echo;

Laura Joyce , Senior Librarian, Children’s Services, South Dublin County Libraries;

Mayor Dermot Looney, who is also a national school teacher.

Details of the 1848 Tricolour Celebration are online at http://www.1848tricolour.com

Timeframe:

March 9th : Mayor collects flag at ceremony in Waterford

March 31st – Closing date for competition entries

April 1st - 25th – Judging Panel review entries and decide winners

Week beginning the 28 th April– Winners notified

May 9th   Reception in County Hall, Tallaght

Competition Rules

• The competition is open to pupils attending second level schools located in South Dublin County.
• Each school may submit a maximum of 3 essays
• An essay may be submitted by an individual student, a class or a group of students.
• All essays must be the original work of the student/s.
• Entries will be accepted in the Irish or English language.
• The maximum word count is 1000 and entries above this will be automatically disqualified.
• Each essay should be typed in a standard 12 point font. No fancy/coloured/oversized fonts or images please.
• Entries must be submitted by email
• All entries should be emailed (as a Word Document attachment) to the following address with the words ‘An Ireland of Inclusion” – 1848 Tricolour Essay Competition in the subject line: mayor@sdublincoco.ie
• All entries must include the student’s name, school and the year they are in.
• Closing date for receipt of entries is March 31st. Only entries received by close of business on this date will be considered.