The Climate Change and Biodiversity Art Competition was initiated in January 2023. It was a collaboration between Swords Tidy Towns (STT) and Swords Woodland Association (SWA). The rationale for the competition stemmed from previous Zoom meetings between Deborah Tiernan Fingal County Council Bio Diversity Officer and STT as to what could be done to promote biodiversity in our community in Swords. One of the suggestions was to run a poster art competition for the schools in Swords on the subject of biodiversity. It was decided to include Climate Change and Biodiversity in our poster advertising the competition because of the likelihood of getting a wider interest from students to enter the competition. Furthermore, STT decided to give generous prizes for the winners, which helped achieve a very good response from the schools concerned.
The competition was open to students from all secondary schools and Youthreach in Swords. The following schools participated; Fingal Community College, Loreto College, St. Finian’s Community College, Swords Community College, Colaiste Choilm and Youthreach. A total of 137 entries were received, we were delighted with the response from the schools and thank the students, teachers, (especially Siobhan Lynch, Fingal Community College for her background help and support,) and each school for their time and participation in the competition.
Students were encouraged to use their creativity and were asked to submit a poster that reflected the themes of Climate Change and Biodiversity. They were given the opportunity to create the poster in any medium on A3 paper. Posters advertising the competition were issued to all schools in January and the entries were collected from all schools by the end of March deadline. Judging of the entries was carried out in April by judges; Eric Duffy (STT), Matt Cullen (STT) and Edward Stephenson (SWA). They were delighted with the high standard of the entries.
The prizes were awarded to students in the following age categories;
12 to 15 years:
1 st Prize: €100 Voucher (Gabriels Galkins, Colaiste Choilm)
2 nd Prize; €50 Voucher (Nidhy Abraham, Loreto College)
3 rd Prize €25 Voucher (Sneha Binu, Loreto College)
16 to 18 years:
1 st Prize: €100 Voucher (Ann Julie Joshua, Loreto College)
2 nd Prize: €50 Voucher (Nudrat Mir, Loreto College)
3 rd Prize: €25 Voucher (Shaighanne Harford, Youthreach)
The judges were so impressed with the standard of entries that two Merit Awards were added to the prizes which were;
€25 to each student; Kamil Kasza (Fingal Community College) and Guillherme Purvis (Colaiste Choilm)
It was decided to look for the use of the Atrium, County Hall, Swords for to stage the exhibition of entries during Biodiversity Week from Tuesday 23rd to Friday 26th May. (The setting up of the exhibition was carried out on Monday 21st May.) Although permission was granted which we were very thankful for, unfortunately, we could only display 20 entries in the Atrium from the 137 submitted.
The opening of the exhibition was held at 4pm in the Atrium on Tuesday 23rd of May, with Fingal County Council providing the refreshments and STT organizing the display and the presentations. Ken Duffy (Chairperson, STT) introduced the presentations, during which all students were acknowledged for their terrific art entries. The teachers and schools were also acknowledged, especially for their encouragement and support. As the competition was a collaboration between STT and SWA, the presentation of prizes was carried out by Matt Cullen, Schools Liaison Officer (STT) and Edward Stevenson (SWA) presented the certificates to the thirteen students whose entries were commended. Deborah Tiernan, Biodiversity Officer (FCC), during her talk expressed the view that her door was always open to students and teachers, which was very well received. The feedback from all concerned was excellent, which was an indication of the level of success of the competition.
Swords Tidy Towns 