The Irish Times Amateur Travel Writer competition closed at the end of Spetember. We asked you to send us articles of up to 600 words that would excite us about your personal travel journeys. We received close to 500 entries, telling stories about almost every corner of the globe. For the past month our judging panel have been reading every one and whittling the best writing to a longlist that came to 45 articles. There were no restrictions on how many times you could enter with different articles and consequently one writer got nominated for three different stories.
The judging was blind. No names, article titles, email addresses or other identifying marks were known to the judges and the articles were selected purely on their writing style, ability to excite the reader and if they made us feel as though we wanted to be there.
Next Friday, October 30th, we will publish a shortlist of ten articles that will go forward to find one winner to take the overall prize, a press trip abroad for The Irish Times. This will most likely be organised for springtime 2016 and will result in the winner writing a feature on that trip for the Saturday Magazine. You can find out more about the competition here.
Here's the longlist (in no particular order): Congratulations to all.
Memphis Tennessee by Linda Kavanagh
An Binh, Vinh Long, Vietnam by Dominique Twomey
Tuscany by Darragh Mooney
By Canoe from Ecuador to Peru by Paul McElwee
The Lover's House, Sa Dec Vietnam by MV Cullinan
The Isle of Skye, Scotland by Ewen Friers
Salta, Argentina by Colm McGarry
Berlin, Inter-railing across Europe by Catherine Dempsey
Inishbofin, Galway by Maria Hoey
Gibraltar by Pat Nolan
Glacier caving in Glacier Bay, Alaska by Bronagh McGann
Ethiopia by Mary Faherty
Iran/Turkey by David O'Connor
Kutna Hora by Paul Mc Granaghan
Edinburgh by Gerard Mulligan
Keywest, Florida by Nicola Cassidy
Unzen, Nagasaki, Japan by Shane Leavy
The Balkans by Pat Barrett
Delhi, India by Katie Burke
The Grand Canyon by Stuart Montgomery
Matagalpa by Tomas Lynch
Baiardo, Ligario, Italy by Eimear McGovern
Najara, Rioja, Spain by Eimear Phelan
Volterra, Italy by Hannah McCarthy
Kenya by Sheila Malone
Cambodia and Vietnam by Ruth Petherick
Florianopolis, Brazil by Patrick Holloway
Akureyri, Iceland by Emmett Mullaney
Listowel Writer's Week by Marie Noonan
Tea drinking, Jinhong by Marie Noonan
Tunisia by Marie Noonan
Amalfi Coast by Paula Moran
Thailand by Phillip Lynch
Accra, Ghana by Stephen Buck
The Wadi Rum Desert by Patricia Cunningham
Cuba by Joe McCarthy
Beijing, China by Aoife O'Regan
Phong Nha, Vietnam by Robert Higgins
Bolivia, Rainforest by Dermot O'Sullivan
Saxony, Germany by Jackie Gorman
Trans-Mongolian Railway by Mark Buckley
Cap de Creus, Catalonia, Spain by Maria Skehan
Bolivia by Aine Ryan
St Petersburg, Russia by Kathyan Kelly
Gifu, Japan by Darren Ryding
