A pupil at Lisanally Special School in Armagh has been awarded a top prize in a prestigious art competition.
Charlie Kernan was awarded third place in the special school category of the annual creative celebration, organised by the Ulster Farmers’ Union in partnership with Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend and competition sponsor Asda.
UFU president William Irvine commended the young city pupil for his efforts.
He said: “Congratulations to Charlie who was awarded third place in the special school category in this year’s schools’ competition. Charlie’s attention to detail was excellent. Congratulations also to Tiernan Mallon and Annie McAdam Haddock who were awarded highly commended.
“I would like to thank everyone who entered the 2024 schools’ competition. Once again, we were blown away with the volume and standard of entries this year in the schools’ competition, receiving 7,381 entries – the highest number to date.
“The effort and time that pupils, teachers, parents and guardians put into the competition was evident as all of the entries were of the highest standard and I would like to thank Lisanally Special School for contributing to this.
“I hope that by participating in the competition this year, it created an opportunity for teachers, parents and guardians to start the discussion about the importance of supporting local food production and our unique family farm structure in NI, raising awareness among pupils about the origin of food and to understand the hard work and dedication that farmers put into producing high quality produce which they consume daily.
“It is vital that we continue to remind consumers that the products they are purchasing in shops started on farm and why choosing local produce matters.”