Alannah Lenehan Art Award presented at opening of St Joseph's exhibition

The Alannah Lenehan Art Award was to Jack Tompkins on the opening night of an exhibition of art, craft and design work by pupils and past pupils of St Joseph’s Secondary School, Rochfortbridge last Thursday, February 8, in the Atrium Gallery at the Westmeath County Council buildings.

Introduced by Laura McCormack from the Arts Office, Niamh Sweeney welcomed everyone to the opening: “Today, we celebrate the creativity, talent and hard work of our students as they showcase their artistic expressions. From paintings to sculptures, digital art to mixed media, each piece reflects the unique perspectives and imagination of our young artists.

“We invite you to immerse yourselves in their world of creativity, to appreciate their dedication and passion and to join us in applauding their achievements.”

Ms Sweeney’s fellow art teacher Jen Gallagher presented the Alannah Lenehan Art Award, and said: “I had the pleasure of teaching art to Alannah Lenehan throughout her years in secondary school, Alannah was a lively, creative, fun girl who enjoyed her art classes in her time at St Joseph’s – her life, as you all know, was cut tragically short by a sudden illness and she died on September 2021 at the tender age of 16.

“It is still hard to comprehend that she is no longer with us. The Art Department decided to honour her memory by creating a perpetual art award to be given annually to the most talented and promising Leaving Cert art student. The first recipient was Saoirse Ryan, class mate of Alannah, who is here tonight.

“This year the Alannah Lenehan Art Award goes to Jack Tompkins, who achieved 98% in Leaving Cert Art and is now studying art full time in NCAD.

“Both Niamh and I have had the pleasure of teaching Jack. I taught him from first to third year and Niamh in fifth and sixth. From the start, Jack showed a keen interest in art, he had an obvious gift, but also he had a serious enthusiasm for the subject and showed a huge work ethic from the get-go.

“He would get his work done to an exceptional standard, earlier than everyone else, and then produce even more work after that! His sketchbooks used to be bulging with artwork, all of it amazing.

“We are delighted to give this award to Jack and have no doubt that we will see him excelling in the art field in years to come.”

Ms Sweeney, Ms Gallagher and their colleague art teacher Katie Deegan expressed their thanks to all those who contributed work to the exhibition including past pupils, Dylan Murphy, Rebecca McCabe, Danny Flanagan, Kelly Sheerin and Saoirse Ryan, and to those who attended the opening.

“We would like to give a special thanks to Laura McCormack and Geraldine Barden from the Arts Office at Westmeath County Council and to principal, Margaret Cole, and deputy principals, Niamh Sheridan, Darragh Glynn and Damien Rush, for their time, patience and support.”

Alannah Looby and Sean McDonnell entertained the crowd with their renditions of several musical theatre numbers. Both students hope to follow a career in musical theatre.

The exhibition is open to the public Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 4.30pm until February 23.