The winner of our #ILOVEIRISH photo competition and an announcement

We were overwhelmed by the massive response to our #ILOVEIRISH photo competition. With almost 2,000 entries we had all sorts of photos put forward. Thank you to everyone who participated.

We were delighted from the start that people understood that this was not a competition for professionals only - everyone could enter and the criteria was simple - upload a photo of "Irish"  and follow the terms and conditions.

All shortlisted photos can be viewed on Facebook here.

To pick the winner of €1,000, we rated every photo submitted correctly under one main criteria "Would I pay €1,000 for this Irish photo?" 

We then created a shortlist of almost 70 photos and voted on each one, scoring with a simple "Definitely", "Maybe" or "No". With 10 people from the office judging, you can imagine the conversations and differing views! It was a lot of fun, but we reached a consensus.

The winner by popular choice is the photo below, by Breda Canty. People loved the action, the sporting element, the location and how very "Irish" it is. Breda wins the competition and €1,000.

Taken on the beach at Ballyheuige Co. Kerry, this is the Kerry minor team having a one off practise match on the beach.

BONUS ANNOUNCEMENT:

Due to the high quality of photos submitted, we're also awarding €250 to the following photographs, as it was very very close between them.

Bryan Hanna for this shot of the Cliffs of Moher: