2021 Winners

Senior Young Classicist

The winner of the 2021 Senior Awards and the Robin Miller Trophy is Polly Buckley from Dublin. Inspired by Classical mythology, Polly has used her creative talents both in painting and music to create masterpieces. She created an amazing piece of art titled 'Cerberus' which depicts the difficulties a woman faces in society - often having to depict several different faces, like Cerberus' three heads, in order to navigate the modern world. Her second project titled 'For we are Dust and Dreams' was inspired by the poetry and philosophy of the Roman poet Horace - a wonderful piece which as she explains states that despite the inevitability of our deaths we are still part of something much greater and will live on in dreams. Her third project 'Dead Man' was a song inspired by the tale of Hades and Persephone. These projects showed a range of talents and artistic consciousness inspired by Classical mythology and Roman poetry.  Polly also presented her projects and showed the process of her thinking behind each work in a detailed presentation.

Junior Young Classicist

The winner of the 2021 Dionysus Award, and the trophy, is Owen Taylor from Dublin for his project 'The Colosseum'. This is a highly detailed exploration of the function, architecture, and history of one of the wonders of the world! It is highly creative as Owen recreated the Colosseum in a 3d Model along with some wonderful sketches and paintings. He also shows a tremendous level of research in his written description and uses some Latin too! We felt his project truly reflected the best of the discipline.

Athena Award

Our winner for the 2021 Athena Award, and the Trophy, is Éabha Daffy from Sligo Grammar School for her 'Neptune Project'. Éabha combined her love of mythology and art to create a Recycling Box - depicting Neptune Protecting the life of the Sea - to remind people to recycle and keep their communities clean. She also did some clean-up walks along her local coastline in Strandhill, Sligo. She showed creativity, inspiration from the lessons of the Ancient World, and that she is an active citizen bettering our communities,

Palma Lingua Antiqua

Our 2021 winner was Sean Radcliffe of Dublin for his project 'The Battle of Salamis' an all inclusive project that details the history of the battle and then translates some of Herodotus' Histories' account of the battle. He showed a detailed and in-depth knowledge of Ancient Greek, the etymology of it's words, and the form of it's words.

2020 Winners

Senior Young Classicist

Our Senior Young Classicists were Emma Smyth, Melanija Cvetic, and Sophie Maeva, three 6th year students. They spent the June of 2018 painting a mural on the wall of their Classics classroom around the window. They were inspired by the Garden of Livia - a mural from Pompeii. They were all three Green Leaders in their school and wanted to be reminded about the beauty of nature every day. Their entry was titled "Looking Through the Garden of Livia." This project connected with SDG 13 "Climate Action" and 15 "Life on Land".

Junior Young Classicist

Our Junior Classicist of 2020 was Caoimhe Acres, a 1st year student. Her project was titled "Roman Carbon Footprint". This was a project which compared the carbon footprint of an Ancient Roman noble girl with the carbon footprint of the student herself. She was also on her Green Schools committee and wanted to connect her concern for the environment with her love of Classics. Her project connected with SDG 13 "Climate Action".

The Silver Runner-up
for Junior Young Classicist

The first Runner-Up for the Junior Young Classicist was James O' Neill with a project titled "Roman Aqueducts". It was a fascinating presentation which examined the manner in which the Roman supplied their Urban areas with water. It then compared the efficiency of this with our own methods today - and found that the Romans may have in fact been better at it then we our! This project connected with SDGs 6 "Clean Water and Sanitation" and 11 "Sustainable Cities and Communities. Full photos of the presentation can be found to the side.

The Bronze Runner-up
for Junior Young Classicist

The Bronze Runners-up were Harry Collins, James Power, and Cúan Moore with a project titled "The Nutritional Value of the Plebeian Diet". It was a presentation by three students that examined the diet of the Ancient Roman 'working' class or Plebeian and considered how sustainable and healthy it was. The three students undertook a scientific study of the effects this diet would have. One took the diet for five days, another for two, and the third was the control on researcher. This they connected with SDG 2 "Zero Hunger". Photos of some of the slides are to the side. The rest can be found on the school website: HERE

Athena Award
(Sustainable Development Goal Award)

The winner of the Athena Award - the award for the project which best connects to the Sustainable Development Goals - was a project by ten 4th Year students. The project was titled "Modern problems, Ancient Solutions". It was a poster presentation and leaflet, which took a range of problems that faced the Ancient civilizations of Rome and Greece and considered how they dealt with them. It then considered how the modern world faces similar problems and deals with these. It is perhaps not surprising then that this project won, as it captured the very nature of the SDGs.

Modern Problems, Ancient Solutions!

Palma Lingua Antiqua
(Ancient Languages Award)

This winner of our Ancient Language award was Polly Buckley and Anastasia Papakosta with a project titled "Herakles to Hercules" which combined a presentation with performance. Its was a comparison of the Ancient Myths of Herakles to the modern Disney adaption, Hercules. It included a performance of an extract from Euripides, Herakles, in the original Ancient Greek. It won because it showed that even though the Greek language is Ancient, it is still very much alive, it is still very much a spoken language. What's more, this project captured the very essence of the SDGs, as just as Herakles overcame 12 labours, we must overcome 17 global challenges to achieve our goals.

2019 Winners

Junior Young Classicist

This project was a wonderful movie trailer for the Ancient Greek tragedy of Medea. He was an animation created by the student capturing the essence, tragedy, and drama of the Myth of Medea who murdered her two sons to spite her unfaithful husband.

Runner-up

The first Runner-up was a wonderful translation of Ancient Latin - on the life of Alexander the Great. The translation was presented (with the original Latin) in a booklet to make the language stand out as a piece of literature.

Latin Inscription, from Pompeii

Runner-up

This was a wonderful piece of artwork capturing the variety of gods and mythical creatures of Ancient Greece on a poster. Some brilliant colours and vivid detail brought the Mount Olympus and the Greek gods to life.