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Hayes congratulates winners of 2013 Newgrange Winter Solstice Children’s Art Competition
Brian Hayes TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW) today (5 December 2013) announced the winners of the 2013 Newgrange Winter Solstice Children’s Art Competition.
Speaking this morning, the Minister said: “I am delighted to make this very special announcement today of the winners of the 2013 competition. The six students, accompanied by a parent or guardian will be coming to Newgrange on 21 December and will be the among the lucky few in the chamber for the Winter Solstice sunrise - a unique event in our cultural calendar.”
The 6 winning entrants in the three categories are from the following counties: Clare, Cork, Dublin, Meath, Leitrim and Louth. The 50 winners of the traditional lottery draw for places in the Chamber between 18 and 23 December hail from locations such as USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Austria, England and many counties throughout Ireland.
The Minister concluded: “The winning entrants have been given the good news and I’m sure are looking forward to the 21st December already. This year, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the inscription of Newgrange on UNESCO’s World Heritage site list and all the entries embraced this theme very creatively indeed. This is the second year of this art competition and the number of entries we received increased significantly on last year. I would also like to thank the primary and post primary teachers and principals for their invaluable assistance with this competition. The judges have told me that all the entries were of a very high standard and all are to be congratulated on putting the time and effort into the competition”.
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Editors Note:
This is the second year of the Newgrange Winter Solstice Children’s Art Competition run by OPW. The winning children will be present in the chamber for the Solstice on the 21st December with the remaining attendees being winners of the usual lottery draw. This initiative is aimed at primary and post primary students to foster an appreciation of our natural heritage and affords them the opportunity to witness a spectacular cultural event.