Clonlara’s own Google doodler

MILLIONS of internet users will view an award-winning design by a talented Clonlara student when it appears on the Google Ireland homepage this Friday.
A desire to turn back time and see how people lived in the past helped Patrick Horan scoop the top prize in the prestigious Doodle 4 Google competition.
The sixth-year pupil was the toast of St Munchin’s College on Monday after becoming the second pupil from the school to win this prize within the last four years, emerging victorious out of 2,300 entrants.
Interestingly, the €10,000 prize secured by Evan O’Sullivan-Glynn, who won the inaugural competition in 2009, played a major role in guiding Patrick Horan to the school’s latest extraordinary success.
The 2009 prize money paid for a new art room in the school, which provided the ideal facility for Patrick to hone his art skills after reaching the quarter-finals of the 2011 competition.
Pupils from Parteen, Clonlara, Meelick, Westbury and Shannon Banks benefited from the upgrading of facilities in the art room.
An expert panel of judges chose the 75 finalists for the 2012 competition, who went forward to the online public vote in February. Over 125,000 votes were registered and the doodlers that achieved the highest number of votes in each age group made it through to the overall finals. From these five group winners, Sophia Foster-Dimino, an official Google doodler, selected Patrick as the overall winner.
The 18-year-old won €10,000 worth of IT equipment from Dell, a laptop for himself and his art teacher, Maria Barry, who is thrilled with his latest success.
Patrick was a finalist last year with a lyrical design based on the work of his favourite poet Patrick Kavanagh. This year’s theme was I wish.
Explaining his doodle, Patrick said, “Many of us look towards the stars to make a wish. I wish I could turn back time to see our world in times past. My doodle shows the mechanisms inside a clock slowly turning back the hands of time.”
His talent has been well employed in St Munchin’s where he has designed the previous two covers for the college magazine The Torch.
He hopes to study Art and Design in Limerick College of Art after his Leaving Certificate, where his portfolio his application has, according to Ms Barry, already secured high marks for his application.
This Friday, teacher and pupil will return to Dublin for an interview on TV3’s Ireland AM programme, where the latter will display some of his amazing self-portraits to the nation.
Ms Barry predicts he will have a bright future in the art industry.
“This win couldn’t have happened to a nicer lad. He is a talented student who has great imagination and passion for art. I merely facilitated his talent.
“He completed his art history homework on the bus up to Dublin on Monday while I was with him and I corrected his homework. We had a great laugh about this and I remember saying ‘what are we like’.
“Patrick will go far and he may end up getting a job in Google,” she predicted.
Sophia Foster-Dimino travelled from Google’s offices in Mountain View, California to present Patrick with his award at a special prize-giving ceremony in Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin this week.
She said the creativity exhibited by all of the five group winners was fantastic. “I really struggled to pick the overall winner. I can’t wait to see Patrick’s doodle on the Google Ireland homepage,” she said.
John Herlihy, head of Google Ireland, said the competition shows the power of imagination and how talented Irish children are.
“Everyone involved should be extremely proud of their achievements. Google is committed to encouraging creativity and innovation amongst the next generation and the standards shown by this year’s entrants confirm that Ireland’s future is in safe hands,” he said.
Anyone who Google’s museum attendances will find that 15,000 people will pass through the Louvre in Paris this Friday and spend a few seconds in front of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa.
This figure pales into insignificance when compared to the millions who will critically consider the artistic merits of Patrick’s creativity.