The Institute of Horticulture (IoH) Annual Young Horticulturist of the Year (YHoY) 2014 competition completed its local heats last month, with over 2000 young horticulturists in the GB and Ireland taking part.
Within Ireland 166 people took part in February and the 8 best performing young horticulturists competed with each other in the Ireland Final on 26th of March in Teagasc College of Amenity Horiculture in the National Botanic Gardens. A large crowd of fellow students and staff supported them. It was an excellent quiz with a clear winner, Stephen Walsh, who took off in round one and was never caught. His final score was 45 marks. Michael Dundee was for a long time in second place closely followed by Leo Walsh who just passed him in the last round of the quiz. They ended with 33 and 32 points respectively. The overall order of all of the contestants at the end of the quiz was:
- Stephen Walsh WIT / Teagasc College, National Botanic Gardens
- Leo Walsh Level 5, Teagasc College, National Botanic Gardens
- Michael Dundee CAFRE Greenmount Campus, Co. Antrim
- Aoife Mc Mullin DCU / Teagasc College, National Botanic Gardens
- Francis Mulholland CAFRE Greenmount Campus, Co. Antrim
- Eva Ziggiotto UCD, Co. Dublin
- Matthew Hughes CIT/ Teagasc College Clonakilty, Co. Cork
- Padraig Morrisey Teagasc College, Kildalton, Co. Kilkenny
Stephen Walsh will represent Ireland in the IoH Grand Final which will be held this year at the John Innes Centre (www.jic.ac.uk) in Norwich, England on 10 May 2014. We wish him all the best. The overall winner in the Grand Final will win a travel bursary of £2000, which is sponsored by the Shropshire Horticultural Society.
The Ireland Branch of the Institute of Horticulture is very grateful for the continued support and sponsorship from Bord Bia.
