Dublin girl Kelly (8) wins Google Doodle competition

Dublin schoolgirl Kelly McCabe (8) was named the overall winner of the sixth annual Doodle 4 Google competition.

Beating off tough competition from 74 regional finalists, the  Scoil Carmel Junior National School student’s winning doodle will now be seen by millions of users when it appears on the Google Ireland homepage this Wednesday March 26th.

Eight year old Kelly was presented with her award at a special prize-giving ceremony in Google’s EMEA headquarters in Dublin today by professional Google doodler, Katy Wu. Katy travelled from Google's offices in Mountain View to present Kelly with her prizes including a Chromebook and a €5,000 scholarship towards her further studies. Kelly’s school, in Firhouse, Dublin, will also receive a €10,000 technology grant from Google with her teacher, Ms. Teresa Lea, also winning a Chromebook.

The theme of this year’s event was ‘My Adventure’. Kelly’s winning doodle, entitled ‘My Adventure in the Jungle’, was inspired by the jungle and used animals such as elephants, lions and snakes to give the iconic Google logo a creative twist. Describing her doodle, Kelly said “The jungle is where you can find lots of exciting things, just like Google.”

Kelly, alongside the 74 other finalists were invited to Google for a special fun day and prize-giving to celebrate their achievements taking part in a doodle workshop with professional doodler Katy Wu.

A panel of judges including Ciara O’Shea, Marketing Manager of Dublin Children’s Museum, Imaginosity, Irish artist Christine Crotty of The Swan Academy of Art, Design and Digital, famed for her Illustrated Pictorial Maps of Irish Walled Towns, and Jim Fitzpatrick, legendary Irish artist and creator of the iconic red and black 1968 Che Guevara poster, chose the 75 finalists for the public vote. Over 120,000 votes were registered with the highest number of votes in each class group making it through to the overall finals. From these five group winners, Katy Wu selected Kelly as the overall winner.

The four other group winners in the Doodle 4 Google competition are:

• Class Group 1 (Ages 4-6) – Cian Mangan from Cloghan’s Hill National School, Tuam, Co. Galway

• Class Group 3 (Ages 9-12) – Emma Doyle from Ballyduff National School, Camolin, Co. Wexford

• Class Group 4 (Ages 13-15) – Naiara Abad Sanchez from Carndonagh Community School, Carndonagh, Co. Donegal

• Class Group 5 (Ages 16-18) – Oisín O’Byrne from Ashbourne Community School, Ashbourne, Co. Meath