A BUDDING young author from Donegal has been crowned the junior winner of Specsavers short story competition in this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards.
Charles Dominic Gallagher, age 8 from Donegal was the junior winner of the national competition with his story titled, ‘An Púca’s eyes.’
The senior winner was Esme Hadlow Davison, aged 11 from Cork.
The creative duo fought off stiff competition with the highest number of entries to date, to claim the top prizes, which included a collection of this year’s shortlisted books from the Irish Book Awards children’s category, along with a €500 book voucher for their respective school libraries.
In addition to winning the shortlisted books and book vouchers for their schools, Charles and Esme also received an extra special surprise gift – their winning stories will be created into a physical book, brought to life by renowned illustrator Linda Byrne.
This exciting initiative celebrated Specsavers’ sponsorship of the Junior and Senior Children’s Book of the Year categories at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2025, encouraging young, budding authors to unleash their creativity by writing their very own short story inspired by the prompt: ‘I looked around my new classroom, at the letters, the map, and numbers on the wall – then I saw it, the teacher’s secret cupboard tucked away behind my desk. There was a weird noise coming from it, so I slipped off my chair and went to investigate…’.
With entries received from all over Ireland, locally owned Specsavers stores engaged with schools in their communities to inspire and encourage young writers to let their creativity flow and enter the Specsavers Short Stories Awards.
The two winners seriously impressed the judges through their one of a kind stories, ‘The Púca’s Eyes’ by Charles and ‘No Turning Back’ by Esme, clearly showcasing their exceptional talent for storytelling.
Charles and Esme were proudly presented with their awards by Emily Lyons, Senior Manager, Brand Communications at Specsavers, who said: “I was blown away by the amazing talent the two winners have shown. It was an honour to present Charles and Esme with awards and see the surprise on their faces as they received their books. Specsavers is proud to encourage children to ignite their creativity through reading books in an age where reading books is on the decline with so many young people consuming technology.”
The winners were presented with their prizes in Gutter Bookshop in Temple Bar, Dublin.
