Saint Oliver 400 - Children's Art Competition Results, June 2025

The panel overseeing the selection of artwork managed to narrow down a select few from which they were able to pick the top few winners along with the overall winner. Much prayerful and thoughtful consideration was given to all submitted pieces of art from schools both north and south.

It was evident from all the submissions that the children enjoyed the process of creating their own work of art and expressing some aspect of the life of St Oliver.

Hopefully the young artists will have taken from this experience a shared love for the life and witness of St Oliver. In this respect all participants are true winners and the future witnesses of all that is, good, beautiful and true.

Congratulations to the 1st place overall winner from Whitecross N.S. Julianstown, artist A.R. aged 9, 3rd class.

1st place overall winner 🏆. Artist, Ariana Ryzhakova, age 9. Whitecross N.S. Julianstown

The artwork shows a remarkable sense of colour balance and has the appearance of a stained glass window with light reflecting through it. Fintan Tracey, the final adjudicator of the competition, was full of praise of the winning art work, describing the piece as 'exceptional, the ability and use of colour and rendering worthy of the top prize.'

In 2nd place from Junior to Second, artist F.C. class P4 Mcd, the art piece has a joyful pastel quality to it celebrating light and colour.

2nd place winner 🏆. Artist F.C. class P4 Mcd, junior to 2nd

The 3rd place winner is from Scoil Aonghusa, 3rd class, artist J.M. age 9, has produced a wonderful piece of art of St Oliver with scenery from the surroundings of Drogheda evoking a sense of time and place giving it a quilt patchwork like look depicting the story and life of St Oliver.

3rd place winner 🏆 Scoil Aonghusa, 3rd class, artist J.M. age 9

The St Oliver 400 committee would like to thank all who participated in the competition and most especially we would like to thank all the teachers for assisting the young artists and in sharing with them the life of St Oliver Plunket.

A selection of competition entries are shown below.

Artist H.C., Y7 St Oliver's Carrichrovaddy. The artist H.C. has produced an exceptionally bold expressive and colourful drawing of St Oliver looking wisely and incredulous at the false evidence brought against him.

St Oliver Plunket's School P.S./Teacher Jim Lee, artist Kayley. Here we have a prime example of St Oliver after his martyrdom in joy at the 'Beatific Vision' seeing God face to face in heaven, Oliver's final destiny.

2nd place secondary school St Mary's Diocesan class D artist, M.M. age 14. Using coloured pencils in this fine rendering of the banner that hung over the balcony of St Peter's in Rome for the canonisation of St Oliver in 1975, captures the moment that St Oliver was exalted to Sainthood. Showing St Oliver, the Vatican, the oak tree he hid in and the scaffold at Tyburn. We can see the teachers did a great job in telling them all about St Oliver.

St Oliver's Carrichrovaddy Y7, artist Aine Kirwan. Here we have a youthful looking St Oliver looking serene and calm in difficult situations requiring diplomacy in bringing about peace and reconciliation to feuding parties. In the finely rendered drawing in pencil the artist defines Oliver's office as a bishop in purple and leaves some white spaces that emote the contrast between his high office and his ability to reconcile both the high and low in society and make peace a priority.