Award Winners 2022

Transition Year students uncover the History on their Doorstep: Part 1

On Monday 23 May, Transition Year students at Mohill Community School were presented with awards for participating in the second Young Historian awards, with Brianna Faughnan winning the overall prize for her detailed account of the life and deportation of Jimmy Gralton. Fiona Slevin said ‘Brianna’s submission stood out for its originality, diligent research and storytelling’.

The Young Historian programme was initiated last year by Fiona Slevin and Natalie Fryde, who worked again with Pauline Brennan and Mary Conefrey at Leitrim County Library to implement the programme. ‘This year, we were really gratified to have five schools participate, and to receive over sixty submissions’, said Fiona Slevin. Students were asked to address the theme of ‘History on Your Doorstep’ and to pick a project and format that followed their skills and interests.

Natalie Fryde praised the students for the ‘very high standard of achievement’, which she said was above expectations and ‘showed signs of excellent teaching’. Thomas Nolan, history teacher at Mohill school said, that the competition ‘promoted research and investigation through various types of sources’, and ‘awakened in students, an interest in the rich history of Mohill and Co. Leitrim’. This was certainly evident in Brianna Faughnan’s outstanding submission; she impressed the judges with her mature, sophisticated approach to research and her fearlessness in striving to tell an accurate, unbiased story.

Winners

Overall Winner, Best in School and Best Biography winner:

• Brianna Faughnan, Mohill Community School, for Jimmy Gralton: deported without trial.

Other winners of Best in School were:

• Neil Sweeney, Ballinamore Community School for Soloheadbeg, who also won Best Decade of Centenaries category;
• Cian Kelly, Carrigallen VC for History of Michael Leo O'Reilly;
• Lisa McGovern, Drumshanbo VC, who also won Best Memoir for War tales from my ancestors in the 1900s;
• Rhianna Woods, Lough Allen College, who also won Best Folklore for How my area has changed since my grand-aunt lived here.

Other category winners were:

• Anna Modrzejewska, Drumshanbo, Best Contemporary History, Poland and Solidarność;
• Esther Edosa, Ballinamore, Best Social History, Forgotten Black Irish History;
• Grace Donlon, Mohill, Best Family History, My great-grandfather Frank Davis;
• Jack Young, Carrigallen, Best Religious History, Kildallon Church;
• Madison Conway, Ballinamore, Best Sport History, Leitrim at the Olympics;
• Ríona Costello, Mohill, Best Built/Natural Heritage, Cavan & Leitrim Railway.

This year, such was the quality of entries that the judges gave Highly Commended awards to eight students:

From Ballinamore:

• Aisling O'Brien, Fenagh Railway Line;
• Ella Van Der Laan, My granny in the Belfast Blitz;
• Fintan Smyth, The first fatality of the land war - Philip Meehan;
• Kelly Prior, Don Tidey kidnapping;
• Kyle Smith, Shannon-Erne Canal;
• Shane Gallagher, Pat Gallagher and his Construction Business.

From Drumshanbo VC:

• Érin Mc Cauley, The family history of the Gray and McCauley families; 
• Oisín Keaney, The Big Snow in Ireland, 1947.

Mohill was the first school to receive their certificates, while schools in Ballinamore, Carrigallen, Drumshanbo, and Lough Allen will be presented with awards during the week of 23 May 2022.