The five winning photographers of the Kilkee Chamber of Commerce Photo Competition 2024 have been announced, and they will be awarded their prizes this coming weekend.
The annual photography competition, which is held throughout the summer months, looks for the best pictures taken of the West Clare seaside town each year.
Judge, Annabel McMahon explained what the competition entails:
“We asked everyone who lives in or were visiting Kilkee to ‘getsnappin’ and send us their best photograph of Kilkee.
“The theme of the photo competition was ‘what Kilkee means to me’ and the beautiful images reflect the affection and emotion the entrants feel for Kilkee. There was a great response to the competition with well over 100 entries.
“The judges, Kim Tittichai, Annabel McMahon, Cillian Murphy and Frank Cosgrove had a challenging, but very enjoyable, job to select the top five winners and a further 20 who were awarded spot prizes. The resulting images and sentiments make a wonderful record of Kilkee in 2024, and all 25 of the combined winning entries can be seen on the Kilkee.ie website.
Each one of the five top winning entries tells a different story some allowing the picture to tell the story and others with an accompanying description for example, Della Collins’ photo entitled ‘Sharing the Load’.
“I was walking one evening when I spotted these two lovely ladies ‘Sharing The Load’ up along the road enjoying the evening sun. It made me smile,” she said of her picture.
“Thinking of all the past and present walkers that have shared the load on this road over the years.”
The five winning photographers who will be awarded their prizes at the weekend are Jimmy Larkin for his photo ‘Beach Time’, Della Collins for ‘Sharing the load’, Lisa McGrath for ‘Jumping the Pier’, Conor Cosgrave for ‘Keeping my distance in the first during Covid’, and Liam Doherty for ‘Rocking the Pollies’.
As part of the competition, there were also 20 runner-up prize-winners.
The prizes have been donated by members of Kilkee Chamber, and the prize giving presentation will take place at Myles Creek Bar and Restaurant on Saturday, September 21 at 5.30pm.
For more information about this year’s Kilkee Chamber of Commerce Photography Competition and other events taking place in Kilkee and the surrounding area visit kilkee.ie.
Sharon Dolan D'Arcy
Sharon Dolan D'Arcy is from Ennis. Her work as a print journalist has appeared in a number of regional publications. She worked as court reporter at The Sligo Weekender newspaper and is a former editor of The Athenry News and Views. She covers West Clare news.