Celebrating student environmental journalism: Young Reporters for the Environment Competition's national winners

Banner image of the 2026 Young Reporters for the Environment winners. Photo: Denis Byrne

Huge congratulations to Ireland's newest Young Reporters of the Environment National winners — we are delighted to reveal that Young Reporters for the Environment International have selected some of this year's winners for the global competition.
  
The wonderful junior and senior category winners of the National Young Reporters for the Environment Competition 2025-2026 were announced at an exciting award ceremony in Portlaoise. Green-Schools students nationwide participated, and the standard of entries was very high. 

Young Reporters for the Environment International have now selected the national winners to go forward for the global competition — Senior Video Overall Winner, Grace Cunnane, St Mary’s School Ballina, ‘Animal Farming’ Young Reporters for the Environment for the International Competition and Senior Photo Winner Yuming Lian from Belvedere College SJ with ‘A Lesson in the Lillies’ (selected by Young Reporters for the Environment for the International Competition)

This year’s winners showcased environmental journalism under categories that included, photography, videography, article writing and podcasting.  

The winning young journalists came from schools nationwide including from Dublin, Galway, Mayo, Kildare, Tipperary and Waterford.

Under Photography category top entries focused on fragility of nature and microplastics:  


While under categories of Videography, Articles and Podcasts, winning entries explored a range of environmental issues from water quality to farming animals to climate change and food security: 


The Young Reporters for the Environment (YRE) programme, coordinated by An Taisce — the National Trust for Ireland, provides a platform for students to explore environmental issues through journalism. The programme provides resources, webinars and workshops to support students to learn more about writing, videography, photography, editing and how to spot ‘fake news’.

Participants have an opportunity to get involved in research, learn critical-thinking skills, and communicate environmental challenges from what they see around them in their areas. YRE fosters environmental literacy and equips young people with the skills to advocate for meaningful change. The programme's dynamic structure includes competitions, training, and international collaboration, making it a cornerstone of An Taisce’s educational initiatives under the hugely successful Green-Schools Ireland umbrella. 

An Taisce is very proud of this annual competition which has been going from strength to strength. The YRE competition is a leadership programme open to students aged 11-25 who are invited to share their environmental perspectives through articles, photographs, videos and podcasts.  

A total of 50 Green-Schools signed up for the programme which launched at the start of the academic year. Under strict criteria, the student's task was to identify and research a local environmental issue in their area, propose solutions and communicate their findings to the community. The criteria also direct each student to evaluate how these local issues feed into the bigger global picture by linking in with the SDGs. Students engaged in various skills based webinars throughout the year on storytelling, podcasting, videography and photography.  

YRE project manager, Claire McDonald: 
“The YRE competition empowers young people to take an informed stand on local environmental issues and gives them a platform to articulate these via written article, photography, video and podcasting. The standard of entries was exceptionally high this year and our judges were overwhelmed with the positive actions and solutions put forward by the students”  

Students were awarded a framed certificate along with their prizes and vouchers up to the value of €2,000 cumulatively at a national awards ceremony in Midlands Park Hotel Portlaoise. The overall winners in each category have a chance of being recognised on a global stage with publication on the International YRE exposure website and entry into the International award.  

Winning articles, videos and photos can be viewed at https://yreireland.exposure.co/ 
 
FULL LIST OF WINNERS: 
Junior Category Winners 
Photos  

 
Senior Category Winners 
Photos  

Videos 

Articles 

Podcast 

YRE is a network of passionate young people educating for sustainable development by producing, engaging, creative, critical-thinking environmental journalism.  

A competition is held annually to encourage young people from all over the world to push themselves to their limits in the search for a story that will ultimately bring a real and current local environmental issue to the fore. It gives young people aged 11-25 a platform to research environmental issues and promote solutions through investigative reporting, photography, and video journalism. and is operating in 43 countries around the world including member states, Africa, South America, North America, Canada, Oceania and Asia. 

YRE is an initiative of FEE (the Foundation for Environmental Education).  The competition is open to those aged 11-25 participating as individuals or groups of students through their school, college, university, or youth group.  An Taisce — the National Trust for Ireland is the country operator for the Young Reporters for the Environment Competition in Ireland.

https://yreireland.exposure.co/ 
http://www.yreireland.org/ 
https://yrecompetition.exposure.co/  

Instagram @yreireland
Facebook @YREIRL

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