Doodle 4 Google marks Ireland’s 2016 Commemorations

Google today launched Doodle 4 Google, its annual creative art and design competition open to all pupils and students in primary and secondary schools throughout Ireland.  The Google Doodle is the drawing that is designed on, around and through the Google logo on the website’s home page.

This year’s competition will be part of Google’s contribution to the 2016 Commemoration Programme.  Students are being asked to design a Doodle on the theme ‘Ireland Is…’    The winning Doodle will appear on the Google homepage on Easter Monday, 28^th March 2016. Themes that students can explore include ‘Our Home’, ‘Our Story’, ‘Our Identity’ and ‘Our Journey’.

“2016 is a significant year for Ireland, commemorating as it does the events of 1916 which subsequently led to the birth of the modern Ireland we are today.  This year’s Doodle 4 Google competition allows young people to express their views of this Ireland through their doodles and we hope in preparing their entries that it will encourage discussion in schools, and among children and their parents on the themes of Ireland then and now”, said Ronan Harris, VP and head of Google in Ireland.  “We’re always blown away by the creativity and talent we see in the entries to Doodle4Google every year and we’re really looking forward to this year’s competition”.

Entries from schools  are invited in the following categories:

Group 1: Junior / Senior Infants

Group 2: 1st, 2nd, 3rd class

Group 3: 4th, 5th, 6th class

Group 4: 1st, 2nd, 3rd year

Group 5: 4th, 5th, 6th year

This year’s judges include the artist Maser, who began painting graffiti on the streets of Dublin and is now one of Ireland’s leading visual artists working in the urban environment Aideen Howard, director of the Ark Children’s theatre and Tom Moore, co-founder and Creative Director of Cartoon Saloon, who directed the Oscar nominated film The Secret of Kells and the film Song of the Sea.  They will have the unenviable task of whittling down the thousands of entries to 75 finalists.  The public will then vote for their favourite doodle on the Doodle 4 Google website and the winners from each of the four categories (outlined above) will go forward to a Grand Final event where the overall winner will be announced.

The prizes for this year’s winning doodle will be a €5,000 scholarship towards the student’s third-level studies. In addition, the winning student’s school will receive a €10,000 technology grant. Also, each of the five category winners and their teachers will receive Chromebooks.

The deadline for entries is the 26th of November, 2015 and entries can be submitted online.

For more information on the competition please visit here.