Creative Drogheda Project Wins at .IE Digital Town Awards 20

Drawda Urban Art Trail was the winner of the Digital Rising Star Award, winning a €5,000 prize fund. Developed to reinvigorate lesser visited spaces in the town, Drawda Urban Art Trail uses public art to bring to life stories of characters from mythology.

‘We are delighted to win the Digital Rising Star Award at the .IE Digital Town Awards. This has been a wonderful project delivered over 18 months in partnership with Love Drogheda BID (Business Improvement District), Droichead Arts Centre and Louth County Council. The project links with our ancient past and has helped bring colour and vibrancy to all areas of our town,” said Trevor Connolly, CEO, Love Drogheda BID.

The murals and art installations are promoted through the use of QR codes, audio trails, digital maps and brochures as well as on social media and websites of partner organisations. To ensure longevity of the project and provide a behind-the-scenes view, videos recordings of the ‘making of the murals’ were published on YouTube.

The awards were created by .IE in 2021, as part of a broader four-year €1m investment in the .IE Digital Town Programme encouraging the uptake and use of internet and digital technologies for businesses, citizens and communities. The awards recognise and reward digitally inspired projects run by towns and local community groups. Each year the .IE Digital Town Awards offer a prize fund of €100,000 which is split across several categories.

In total, 22 town and community digital projects were recognised at this year’s .IE Digital Town Awards 2023 – winners and runners-up across the seven main categories, three special category winners and one overall prize winner. The .IE Digital Sustainability award was a new category introduced this year with Hollymount in Mayo announced as the winner with its Eco-Powered Cabinets which store life-saving equipment.

This year’s category sponsors included Western Development Commission, Connected Hubs, and AIB Merchant Services with Vodafone as the overall presenting sponsor.

‘The quality of entries in this year’s .IE Digital Town Awards has been incredibly impressive. Ireland’s towns and communities are identifying and solving connectivity challenges, driving digital innovation and developing creative digital solutions to enhance the lives of their fellow citizens,” said Oonagh McCutcheon, National Director, .IE Digital Town Programme. “This year 22 projects were recognised at the .IE Digital Town Awards Gala event, which add significantly to the lives of their local communities and improves our nation’s digital footprint.’

Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Neale Richmond congratulated all the winners of this year’s .IE Digital Town Awards.

"The 22 groups honoured at this year’s awards are great examples of how by embracing digitalisation, even small groups can make a big difference to their local communities, friends and neighbours,” said Minister Richmond. “Congratulations again to all the winners, and thank you to every group that entered this year’s awards.