NLI announce 'Poetry Aloud' winner, marking centenary of Yeats Nobel Prize for Literature

Ellie Reynolds, 17, from Lismore College, Co. Armagh has been named as the Overall Winner of the 2023 competition, as well as named winner of the competition's Senior Category. She was presented with a Poetry Aloud certificate from the Director of the NLI, Dr Audrey Whitty. Ellie was also a finalist in 2019.

This year's Junior Category Winner is George Pham, 12, of Portlaoise College, Co. Laois. Intermediate Category Winner is Shay Collins, 15, of Glenamaddy Community School, Co. Galway.

Organised by the National Library of Ireland and Poetry Ireland, in partnership with University College Cork, Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking competition, open to all post-primary students on the island of Ireland.

This year’s competition drew 365 entries from 65 schools across the island. There were 22 finalists in this year’s competition from across 14 counties, from Antrim to Kerry.

This year, the winner recited In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz, a poem by WB Yeats, marking the centenary since Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.

Read the full press release.