A teenage artist from Gort was the big winner as Galway took home five prizes from this year’s 70th Texaco Children’s Art Competition.

Fifteen-year-old Darragh Granahan, a pupil at Gort Community School, won first prize in the 14-to-15-year age category for his work entitled ‘Unconditional Love’.

His artwork is described by Final Adjudicator, Gary Granville, Professor Emeritus of Education at the National College of Art and Design as “a wonderful illustration of exactly that, achieved through technical accuracy, effective colour and well-conceived composition and cropping”.

In addition, four Galway winners each won Special Merit Awards for artworks that Professor Granville said ‘demonstrated high levels of skill and imagination’.

They were Shruti Hemant Dhamne (15) from St. Brigid’s College, Loughrea; Aibhlinn Faulkiner (13) from Coláiste Éinde, Salthill; Fiadh Larderet (6) from Gaelscoil Dara, Renmore and eight-year-old Sadhbh Mitchell from Scoil Mhuire, Moycullen.

No stranger to the Competition, Sadhbh won a Special Merit Award in the same age category last year.

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 Galway and counties throughout Ireland have had their talents recognised and their creativity commended.

Pictured: Texaco winner Darragh Granahan (age 15), from Gort Community School, with his prize-winning work entitled ‘Unconditional Love’.