Galway Cartoon Festival has teamed up with Coláiste Baile an Chláir and Gaeltacht an Eachréidh for a fun initiative that encourages pupils to explore their linguistic and cartooning skills. CIARAN TIERNEY of Gaeltacht an Eachréidh, which covers Claregalway, Annaghdown and Carnmore, explains what’s involved.

Budding cartoonists of the future were honoured during a special ceremony at Coláiste Baile Chláir on Friday last when the winners of the third annual ‘cartoon challenge’ were announced and presented with their prizes.

The Dúshlán Cartún is an annual event organised by Gaeltacht an Eachréidh and the Galway Cartoon Festival to foster a love of cartooning among students, through workshops in Irish.

Dublin-based cartoonist Caoimhe Lavelle travelled to Claregalway to lead a 90-minute workshop ‘as Gaeilge’ for first year students. They also enjoyed a bus trip to Galway City to check out cartoon exhibitions during the festival, held last month.

Caoimhe challenged pupils at Coláiste Baile Chláir to come up with drawings of their own within a fortnight, and the organisers were thrilled by the standard of this year’s entries when local artist Margaret Nolan sat down to choose the winners for Gaeltacht an Eachréidh last week.

The Dúshlán Cartún allows the first years to develop their drawing skills, via the ‘as Gaeilge’ workshop and it brings the cartoon festival, which will celebrate its tenth birthday next year, into the community.

“It was really hard to pick the winners, because the standard was so high,” said Margaret Nolan. “We did pick the top three, but we also gave honourable mentions to another three. It’s the storyline as well and, as I am a visual artist myself, I look at the visual aspect of it.

“Every year, we run school workshops ‘as Gaeilge’ here in Claregalway and at Coláiste Ghobnait on Inis Oírr, where we also run an exhibition called Tarraing é i nGaeilge and organise a residency for a cartoonist each year. It is great that we have Caoimhe, from Dublin, who is fluent in Irish and really passionate about cartooning. She travels to Galway every year for the festival.”

First prize at Claregalway College went to Amber Sweeney, for her stunning story book which took hours to compile. Amber won a €100 voucher for Cregal Art in Ballybane and her beautiful booklet has now gone on display at the school.

Second place went to Zakaria Iskizzi, who drew an inspirational, heart-warming story about a lonely fish who finds a new friend and changes his outlook on life. Zakaria won a €50 voucher for Charlie Byrne’s bookshop on the city’s Middle Street.

Third prize went to Keira Duffy, who produced a beautiful, colourful series of cartoons on the theme of Oíche Shamhna and picked up a €25 voucher from Powell’s Music and Art Shop on William Street. The prizes were sponsored by Gaeltacht an Eachréidh, which is working to revive the Irish language in Annaghdown, Carnmore and Claregalway.

Margaret said it was also important to acknowledge those students who had not won prizes, but had shown exceptional talent and work-rate in submitting their cartoons.

She picked out Conor Rafferty, Aodán Ó Mainnín and Evan Richie as her ‘honourable mentions’ for this year and urged the school management to display their work prominently over the coming weeks.

Margaret said the winners weren’t necessarily those who had drawn the ‘best’ cartoons, but those who had shown the greatest imagination or put most work into their entries. The top three in particular, had spent hours on their submissions.

A six-year language plan is being implemented in Gaeltacht an Eachréidh at present and part of its aim is to foster a love of Irish among young people through enjoyable workshops such as the ‘Cartoon Challenge’.

Pictured: Front row: Students Amber Sweeney, Zakaria Ishizzi, and Keira Duffy from Coláiste Bhaile Chláir who won prizes in the Dúshlán Cartún, pictured with their teacher Joe Seoighe and deputy principal Lisa Carty (left), and Ciaran Tierney, Language Planning Officer, Gaeltacht an Eachréidh (right). Back: Conor Rafferty, Aodán Ó Mainín and Evan Richie, who received honourable mention for their entries, with Richard Chapman of Galway Cartoon Festival.