The community of Glencolmcille have won a major digital award and €9,000 to spend in their local area.
The community scooped the accolade at the .IE Digital Town Awards 2022.
Gleann Cholm Cille’s ‘Building a digital cultural infrastructure for our community’ project took home top prize in the Digital Tourism category at the awards ceremony held yesterday.
The .IE Digital Town Awards honour local town projects and people that are using digital innovation, technologies, and digital-first thinking for the betterment of towns, citizens, and services in the community
Gleann Cholm Cille’s ‘Building a digital cultural infrastructure for our community’ won a total prize of €9,000
Speaking at the ceremony, a .IE spokesperson recognised the projects’ winners and nominees as “showing great commitment to make a positive contribution toward the digital advancement of their local community.”
Gleann Cholm Cille was announced as winner in the Digital Tourism category at the second annual .IE Digital Town Awards 2022.
The result was announced at a virtual awards ceremony attended by Minister Damien English, Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The .IE Digital Town Awards were established in 2021 by .IE, the managers of Ireland’s trusted online .ie address.
The awards recognise local town and community projects and the people that are using digital innovation, technologies, and digital-first thinking for the betterment of towns, citizens, and services in the community.
As winner in the category of Digital Tourism, Gleann Cholm Cille’s ‘Building a digital cultural infrastructure for our community’ won a total prize of €9,000 in recognition of the work taking place in the Gaeltacht community in southwest Donegal to adopt digital technologies to create reusable resources to enhance and share their rich cultural heritage.
This year’s awards had a focus on communities and digital leaders that have adopted new ways of thinking to enhance localities through innovative use of digital tools to provide digital equity in the community, close the digital divide, facilitate emergency response, improve digital infrastructure, and enable digitisation of culture and oral traditions.
Projects were shortlisted in the categories of digital education, digital tourism, community digital as well as digital business, while three special prizes honouring individuals and communities making significant difference to the digital betterment in local towns were also awarded under the categories of digital rising star, digital changemaker and digital local hero.
Congratulating the high calibre of entries, Minister English said: “The awards are an important annual event that recognise the remarkable efforts made by our local digital champions who are determined to futureproof the places where they work, rest and play. The bar this year has been set exceptionally high, with many inspiring examples of digital leaders in our communities that are transforming local life and society in innovative and creative ways.”
There was a total prize fund of €100,000 across seven award categories. 13 counties had one or more project nominated including Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Kilkenny, Kerry, Limerick, Mayo, Roscommon, and Sligo.
Commenting on the announcement, .IE Corporate Communications Manager Oonagh McCutcheon said: “We would like to congratulate all of our winners, runners up and commended entries today and celebrate their tremendous achievements.
“The purpose of the .IE Digital Town Awards is to shine a light on the digital efforts being made by towns and their people working for the betterment of their localities across the country.
“What we celebrate today through the winners, runners up and all of those shortlisted is a phenomenal level of resilience and spirit of local towns and local communities. In the case of all our finalists and winners today, the results have been transformative.
“At .IE, we hope that Gleann Cholm Cille, and all of our winners and nominees can become an inspiration to other towns and communities around the country and, ultimately, help to breathe new life into local communities through demonstration of novel and innovative ways of using digital tools.
“What we have seen are outstanding examples of how communities and digital leaders have stepped up and adopted new ways of thinking and doing, helping their towns and communities to not only survive but thrive.”
The .IE Digital Town Awards, announced by .IE in 2021 as part of its overall .IE Digital Town programme, is part of four-year €1 million investment initiative focused on digital enhancement and digital technology adoption in Ireland’s towns.
This year’s category sponsors included Western Development Commission, Connected Hubs, Vodafone, and AIB Merchant Services.
