Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast
Photography Awards 2018
Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography Awards were held on 11th October in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 2. Micheal John O’Mahony, Director of the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, presented the prizes to the winning photographers.
Clean Coasts was honoured to be joined at the event by Ken O’Sullivan, Filmmaker // Sea Fever Productions, delivered a key note speech on capturing his incredible documentary ‘Deep Altantic’ for RTE, released in April 2018.
Ireland has some of the most spectacular and diverse coastline in the world. Now in its ninth year, Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography Competition is all about capturing the essence of the Irish coast – its extensive beauty and diverse character. Clean Coasts works with communities on the ground to help foster pride in our coastline and we look forward to seeing this reflected in the entries.
Clean Coasts launched the Love Your Coast Photography Competition in June during Clean Coasts Week and with a prize fund of €5,000 it attracted huge interest from Ireland’s amateur photographers. There are five categories in the competition; Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast, Wildlife & the Coast and Underwater.
The difficult task of judging this year’s competition was undertaken by Ken O’Sullivan – Documentary Filmmaker, Naoise Culhane – Professional Photographer, Micheal John O’Mahony – Director, Environmental Education Unit, An Taisce, Assumpta Mannings, Conall O’Connor – Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and Meave Walsh – Failte Ireland.
Clean Coasts would like to wish huge congratulations to Derek Balfe for taking home ‘Photograph of the Year 2018’ Award for his image ‘Drumanagh Under the Stars
Sinead McCoy, Coastal Communities Manger, spoke of the awards, “The images submitted to the Love Your Coast Awards this year was of an extremely high standard and illustrating the vast character of our coastline from Fanad in Donegal to the Skelligs in Kerry, from dolphins to surfers and from families enjoying a day out at the beach to dramatic seascapes, these photographs truly captured the essence of the Irish Coastline.”
A gallery of the winning photographs can be found on cleancoasts.org or on facebook.com/CleanCoasts.
Clean Coasts is operated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce and is supported by the Department of the Housing, Planning and Local Government, and Fáilte Ireland.
If you require images in high resolution or any other information, please contact Sinead McCoy
smccoy@eeu.antaisce.org // cleancoasts@eeu.antaisce.org
0871347950
WINNERS 2018
| Coastal Heritage | |||
| Name | Title | Location | |
| 1 | Derek Balfe | Drumanagh Under the Stars | Loughshinny, Dublin |
| 2 | Sinead Salter | Fastnet Rock | Cape Clear, Cork |
| 3 | Kieran Russell | Currachs on Dun Chaoin Pier | Kerry |
| Coastal Landscape | |||
| 1 | Damien Long | Sea Arch at Crohy Head | Crohy Head, Donegal |
| 2 | Pawel Zygmunt | Seastack Kingdom | An Port, Donegal |
| 3 | Kristin Gray | Incoming | Cliffs of Moher, Clare |
| People and the Coast | |||
| 1 | Jaro Fagan | Man vs. Sea Stack | Cliffs of Kinard, Kerry |
| 2 | Sam McAllister | The Unknown | South Dublin |
| 3 | Pawel Zygmunt | The Hill Runner | Connemara, Galway |
| Underwater | |||
| 1 | Nick Pfeiffer | Basking Shark | Aran Islands, Galway |
| 2 | Maja Stankovski | Posing For A Cover | Malin Beg, Donegal |
| 3 | Nigel Motyer | Lisa and the Lobster | Malin Beg, Donegal |
| Wildlife and the Coast | |||
| 1 | John Holden | Short Beaked Common Dolphin_ | Union Hall, West Cork |
| 2 | Chris Howes | Each Animal Has Much Right To Be Here As You and Me_ | Silver Strand, Wicklow |
| 3 | Timothy Beck | Skellig Island | Skellig Michael, Kerry |
ENDS/////
Clean Coasts
Clean Coasts Ireland is owned and operated by the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce – the National Trust for Ireland. It is funded by the Department of the Environment, Community & Local Government, Coca-Cola and Fáilte Ireland. It has been operating in Ireland for 15 years and engages 650 Clean Coasts groups and thousands of beach users. The Green Coast award is also part of the Clean Coasts programme and is an award for beaches that have excellent water quality but may not have the necessary built infrastructure to be eligible for the Blue Flag award. www.cleancoasts.org
The Judging Panel:
Ken O’Sullivan, Documentary Filmmaker
Ken O’Sullivan has been a natural history filmmaker, cameraman and ocean conservationist for over twelve years. He has produced, directed and shot natural history series for RTÉ & TG4 and worked as freelance cameraman/director for BBC NHU, CBC Canada, ITV and many TV commercials and docudrama projects. Ken is a passionate marine conservationist and leads conservation projects on sharks, skates and rays in Ireland and continues to be at the forefront of cetacean (whale & dolphin) research in Ireland, working closely with Irish academic institutions, the Marine Institute and various conservation organisations.
Naoise Culhane, Professional Photographer
Naoise is a commercial photographer based in Dublin, working in the areas of Press, Public Relations, Corporate and Lifestyle photography.He has built a reputation for quality, style and delivery and works closely with clients to create unique images for national campaigns across all mediums.
Micheal John O’Mahoney, Director of Environmental Education Unit, An Taisce
In his role as Director of the Environmental Education Unit Micheal John O’Mahony oversees the delivery and development of Environmental Education Unit programmes such as Blue Flag, Green-Schools, Clean Coasts, Greening Communities, Neat Streets, Green Home, National Spring Clean, Green Communities and Green Campus. Alongside this, he is a keen wildlife photographer.
Failte Ireland
Fáilte Ireland, the National Tourism Development Authority is a proud sponsor of the Clean Coasts programme for the past 10 years. The Green Coast Awards and associated Clean Coasts groups act as custodians for the beaches, seas, and marine life in Ireland, ensuring that they are managed appropriately and that they are litter and pollution free for our visitors to enjoy. Local communities are at the heart of Irish tourism and the Clean Coasts groups provide a model for how communities can take a lead in protecting our core tourism assets.
Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government
As part of its commitments under the EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive and OSPAR’s Marine Litter Action Plan, the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government is proud to support An Taisce’s ‘Clean Coasts Programme’, in its enthusiastic engagement with marine communities in relation to marine litter and in heightening public awareness and influencing positive behaviour among civil society. The Department would also like to acknowledge the tremendous work done by hundreds of local clean coast groups around the coast in protecting the marine environment, for the generations to come.