Submit an entry for the Young Historian awards

– now closed for 2026 –

Please bear in mind:

  1. Only entries submitted through this form are accepted.
  2. Filenames must be in the form School-StudentName-ProjectTitle(Short)
  3. Your responses will be used to filter entries and create a shortlist of potential award-winners
  4. Before uploading a file, please proof-read it, and do a spelling and grammar check

See further guidance below

Submit entry

The link above opens a GoogleForm - see image opposite.

Please note that GoogleForms requires you to enter an email address, but this will not be saved or seen by us. This means that we can only communicate with you via your school and teacher. It also means that you will not receive a copy of your submission, so please save your details.


If you are submitting independently, you must provide an email address; otherwise we have no way of contacting you.

If you have any issues, please contact us using the form below.

Notice re submission and copyright

The student and their guardian(s) confirm that the submission is the student’s own work, that they have permission to use images and stories in their submission, and that they are not disclosing personally sensitive or confidential information.

It should be noted that participation or success in the Young Historian of the Year programme does not indicate or predict, in any way, the likely performance by a student in a state examination, or other competition. 

In submitting projects for this competition, (you) the student retains copyright over your work, while providing permission for the competition organisers and County Library to use and draw on the work to promote local history studies and to promote the Young Historian of the Year programme.

There is also nothing to prevent submission of the material to form part of another history project, Schools’ Collection, etc.

Generative AI and LLMs

Use of AI-LLMs

2025 was the first year we saw broad use of generative AI-LLMs, with many students using applications such as ChatGPT, CoPilot, GoogleGemini, and others to generate and edit text and images.



Acknowledging use of AI

In the submission form, we ask students to indicate whether and how they used AI in their work.

We do not penalise students who use it well and who are up front about where and how they used it. However, we have sees inept use where the output did not match the student’s knowledge or writing style.


Our view

Use of AI-LLMs is expected and predictable. It is possible to use it well, as just another tool. However, in our experience, students tend to accept the answers generated without interrogating either content or style.

Successful entries

Skills of history

The skills of history – and the skills which are judged in the Young Historian programme – continue to be:

  1. Curiosity
  2. Asking the right question – and the right follow-up questions
  3. Interrogating sources: being able to separate fact from fiction, and plausible from fake
  4. Interpreting findings – in a way that retains the integrity of the data, but which is unique to the teller
  5. Communication and storytelling
  6. Ability to learn


Past winning entries

The very nature of the Young Historian programme, with its emphasis on personal histories found on doorsteps, is difficult to generate with AI.

Past award winners in general:

  • found a personal connection, and an original  aspect to the story or novel approach to telling it
  • told us something new
  • told us the story in their own words and voice
  • cited sources and explained the value or gaps in specific sources
  • showed how research and history makes us more connected to family and nation’s history and how important these are to pride and identity


Read winning entries here>>>

Before submitting an entry

Note the deadline

The deadline for final submissions is usually before the Easter break. The specific date will be issued to teachers via email.

Format and style

We appreciate that there are multiple approaches to learning and storytelling, and the programme sets out to respect and showcase students’ preferences and talents as far as possible.

Students are invited to work individually or in a team, and may present their findings in a format that matches their skills and interests, e.g. writing, illustration, video, 3D model, etc.

Check for errors

Communication of key points is critical, but we will not penalise students for occasional misspellings, poor grammar, poor punctuation, etc. However, we will penalise students who do not do a simple spelling and grammar check.

Filenames

All files should use the following naming protocol:

SchoolName-StudentName-ProjectTitle(Short), e.g. BCS-ClaireDolan–TheNarrowGauge (or Ballinamore-ClaireDolan–TheNarrowGauge)


Uploading files

GoogleForm

All entries must be submitted via a GoogleForm on the Submit Entry page.


Key questions in the form

As well as standard questions (name, title etc), the following questions are used to filter entries and generate a shortlist of contenders for awards.

  1. Provide a short summary of your topic, research and conclusion (max 50-words)
  2. What is your personal interest and/or connection with this topic?
  3. What sources did you use? You should also list your sources In the main body of your project, and describe why you relied on those sources; what were the strengths and weaknesses of each? what gaps did they have?
  4. What did you learn most from this project personally? What difficulties did you encounter, and how did you overcome them? What was most gratifying? And most frustrating?
  5. Has a version of this project being submitted for Junior Cert CBA programme? If yes, please describe how you have developed the project?
    We don't mind you entering projects you have already worked on, but it cannot be the same project. What new research did you do? How is this entry different from CBA?
  6. Have you used AI (eg ChatGPT, etc) to generate or refine any aspect of your project? If yes, please explain below. Using AI will not exclude you from the awards, but we do need to understand why and how you used it.

Contact us

Send us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.