Carrigtwohill student named Press Pass Student Journalist of the Year

Transition Year student Grace O’Leary awarded the overall prize in recognition of her opinion piece on climate change

Overall Student Journalist of the Year Grace O’Leary, a Transition Year student from St. Aloysius College, Carrigtwohill, Cork; Ann Marie Lenihan, CEO NewsBrands Ireland, left;  and Michael Foley, chairman of the Press Pass judging panel. Picture: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography

A Cork student has been awarded the overall prize at the NewsBrands student journalism awards, in recognition of her opinion piece on climate change.

Transition Year student Grace O’Leary, from St Aloysius College in Carrigtwohill, was crowned Press Pass Student Journalist of the Year at the event on Wednesday.

The event, hosted by Matt Cooper, was attended by the award-winning school students, their teachers and families, along with leading national news editors and journalists.

The awards ceremony, which took place in the Aviva Stadium, recognised the efforts of budding journalists across six categories, including News Writing, Features, Opinion, Sports Journalism, Photojournalism, and best School Newspaper.

Cork students were well-represented across multiple categories, taking home a raft of prizes for their journalistic efforts.

Dylan O’ Driscoll of Pobalscoil na Tríonóide, Youghal, was awarded first prize in the Features category.

Students from St. Mary’s Secondary School, Macroom were awarded 3rd place in the school newspaper category.

Keirsha O’ Hare, also from St. Mary’s, took home 3rd place in the News Reporter category, while her fellow student Ava McSweeney was awarded 2nd place in the Sports Journalism category.

Ursuline College Blackrock was given first prize in the newspaper category.

Maria Weroniecka from St. Aloysius College in Carrigtwohill won 3rd place in the photojournalism category.

Michael Foley, Chairman of the Press Pass Judging Pane, said the overall winner, Ms O’Leary “clearly understood” that journalism should be both accessible and assessable.

“It was well written and was sourced. But it was also smart. Climate change can be overwhelming. Does the little we can do actually make a difference? Yes, according to the winning piece and in so giving us the good news about climate change she encourages us all to do more, a sort of reverse psychology.”