Clean Coasts Celebrated the winners of this year’s Love Your Coast photography competition
Clean Coasts announced the winners of the 12th Love Your Coast photography competition during their virtual awards ceremony that was premiered on Friday, 12th of November at 6:00pm on Clean Coasts’ social media channels.
The Love Your Coast competition is an integral part of the Clean Coasts programme. Ireland has some of the most spectacular and diverse coastlines in the world. For the past 12 years, the ‘Love Your Coast’ competition has been about capturing the essence of the Irish coastline, its beauty, and its diverse character.
Being Ireland’s foremost community-based coastal programme, Clean Coasts counts on the work of nearly 2,000 volunteer groups nationwide to help protect our coastline, waterways, seas, ocean, and marine life. Once more, Clean Coasts’ volunteers and groups have been eager to engage with us and support the fight against marine pollution. Clean Coasts mission is to foster pride in our coastline and waterways and each year the Love Your Coast competition is an opportunity to see this reflected in the entries.
For the Love Your Coast 2021 competition, almost 1,300 entries were received – the most entries the Love Your Coast competition has had to date.
Clean Coasts’ Love Your Coast Photography awards were held virtually for the second year in a row, where the winning photographers for the Love Your Coasts Photography competition were announced. The competition had a prize fund of €5,000 for the amateur photographers competing in five categories: Coastal Heritage, Coastal Landscape, People & the Coast, Wildlife & the Coast and the introduction of a brand-new Love Your Coast Category for 2021, Creativity and the Coast.
The 50 best shots were shortlisted by the Love Your Coast judges for an online gallery. Winning images showcased the stunning coastlines of Wexford, Donegal, Waterford and Galway.
Declan Roche’s winning image from the Wildlife and Underwater category, entitled Let Me Out, was the overall winner for 2021 Love Your Coast photography competition.
Michael John O’Mahony, director of the Environmental Education Unit said: “This is the 12th year of the competition and it has been very successful and very well received and we have seen some of the most amazing photographs of our coast over the last number of years. This is more than just a photography competition: we are an island nation and our coast and marine environment are incredibly important to us. Clean Coasts has almost 2,000 volunteer groups who are doing amazing work when it comes to managing and protecting our marine environment, so these photographs are a way for everybody to appreciate and celebrate our coast and be inspired to get involved too.”
Clean Coasts would like to wish a huge congratulations to Declan Roche and the rest of the prize winners and thank all the entrants for submitting their photographs.
A gallery of the winning photographs can be found on www.cleancoasts.org
WINNERS 2021
Overall winner:
Declan Roche , Let Me Out, Wexford Harbour Quay front, Co. Wexford
| Category | Rank | Name | Title of Photograph | Location |
| Wildlife and Underwater | 1 | Declan Roche | Let Me Out | Wexford Harbour Quayfront, Co. Wexford
|
| Wildlife and Underwater | 2 | Mike Orth | Compass by Cave Light | Entrance to Donegal Point Cave Kilkee, Co. Clare |
| Wildlife and Underwater | 3 | Conor O’Brien | Birds of a Feather | Ireland’s Eye, Co. Dublin
|
| Coastal Landscape
|
1 | Gary McLaughlin | Dunree Panoramic | Linsfort, Buncrana, Inishowen Peninsula,
Co. Donegal |
| Coastal Landscape
|
2 | Adrian Hendroff | Night Under the Stars | Ballydowane Beach, Copper Coast,
Co. Waterford |
| Coastal Landscape
|
3 | Michael Goulding | Epic | Mizzen Head, Co. Cork |
| People and the Coast
|
1 | Kevin Doyle | Golden Evening Surfer | Tramore beach, Co. Waterford |
| People and the Coast
|
2 | Timothy Beck | Old Sea Dog | Galway City, Co. Galway |
| People and the Coast
|
3 | Adrian McCarthy | Saviour of the Sea | Clogherhead Beach, Drogheda, Co. Louth |
| Coastal Heritage
|
1 | Myles Lambert | Remains Of the Day
|
Connemara, Co Galway
|
| Coastal Heritage
|
2 | Catherine Bushe | The Lighthouse | Howth, Co Dublin |
| Coastal Heritage
|
3 | Fergus Cooper
|
Walking towards the Watch Tower on a Summer’s Day
|
Ardmore, Co. Waterford
|
| Creativity and the Coast | 1 | Myles Carroll
|
Seagull on Tour
|
Beach at Kilmichael Point Co. Wexford
|
| Creativity and the Coast | 2 | John Hall
|
Foggy Morning at Scilly, Kinsale
|
Scilly, Kinsale,
Co. Cork
|
| Creativity and the Coast | 3 | Ivan Donoghue
|
Sunlight from Above
|
Hook Head, Co. Wexford
|
