Twelve-year-old Kevin Fitzpatrick of St Macartan’s College, Co Monaghan, was declared the overall winner of the annual Poetry Aloud competition during a ceremony at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin on Friday.

Poetry Aloud is an annual poetry speaking competition for post-primary school students across the island of Ireland and was launched in 2006.

From the three national category winners, an overall winner is chosen each year, and awarded the Seamus Heaney Poetry Aloud Award as well as a prize of €500. The trophy is designed by Meath-based sculptor Fiona Smith-Darragh.

Fitzpatrick was the winner in the junior category for his recital of the Rose Tree by William Butler Yeats, and Clearances by Seamus Heaney.

150th anniversary

In terms of the other national winners, Nuala Whittle of St Kevin’s Community College, Dunlavin, Co Wicklow, won the intermediate category, and Alice Magorrian of Assumption Grammar College, Ballynahinch, Co Galway, won the senior category.

The prescribed poems in this year’s competition were all by WB Yeats to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the poet’s birth, and each of the winners from the national categories received a prize of €300.

There were more than 1,800 entries this year. The judging panel included poet Colm Keegan, director of Irish studies at Emory University Prof Geraldine Higgins and director of Poetry Ireland Maureen Kennelly.

Bríd O’Sullivan, of learning and outreach at the National Library of Ireland, said the “wonderful recitals” of Yeats’s work had been “very moving”.

“It is a remarkable achievement to reach the final, especially considering the record number of entries received this year,” she said. “We would like to extend our congratulations to all involved today.”