A Connemara teenager is the Irish winner of the 18th EU young translation contest “Juvenes Translatores” for secondary schools, the European Commission announced recently.

Déithín Ní Fhátharta from Coláiste Chroí Mhuire in An Spidéal, made it three-in-a-row for the school following in the footsteps of Fionnán Ó Coisdealbha and Maitilde Warsop, who were Ireland’s winners in 2024 and 2023 respectively.

The Cois Fharraige school also won three of the five ‘special commendation’ awards for Ireland.

Caoilte Canny, Tomás Ó Neachtain and Ella Nic Dhomhnaill were joined by Faith Nic Aogáin, from Gaelcholáiste Cheatharlach in Carlow, and Lucie Walsh of St Louis High School, Dublin.

A total of 53 students from 14 secondary schools took part in this year in the Irish leg of the pan-European competition.

Across the EU, 3070 enthusiastic participants tried their hand at translating a text between any two of the EU’s 24 official languages.

While English features prominently, the 144 language combinations chosen by students from 713 schools in the 27 Member States also included language pairs such as Polish/Portuguese, Slovenian/Danish and Romanian/Finnish, among others.

The European Commission’s translators selected one winner for each EU country. In addition, 341 students received special mentions for their impressive work.

Piotr Serafin, Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration, congratulated the winners and also thanked all the participants and their teachers for their enthusiasm. He added a message on the importance of language learning.

The award ceremony will take place in Brussels, on 10 April. As part of their trip, the 27 young translators will meet European Commission translators and see how they work.

This experience will also bring them a unique opportunity to discover one another’s languages and cultures. As last year’s Swedish winner, Ivar Lasse put it: “Juvenes Translatores made me believe in the “European Project”.

Funded by the Erasmus+ programme, the Juvenes Translatores contest has been organised by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation every year since 2007, to promote translation and multilingualism.

This contest has been a life-changing experience for many of its participants and winners, giving young people their first experience at the European institutions.

Some have decided to go into studying translation at university, and some have joined the European Commission’s translation department as trainees or have become full-time translators.

The goal of the Juvenes Translatores contest is to promote language learning in schools and to give young people a taste of what it is like to be a translator.

The competition is open to 17-year-old secondary school students and takes place at the same time in all selected schools across the EU.

Pictured: Déithín Ní Fhátharta