A student from Limerick School of Art and Design has won the National Bike Week logo competition, which was run in partnership with Green-Schools. A total of 153 entries were received from students in schools and third level institutes from all over Ireland. National Bike Week is taking place from June 10th until June 18th this year.

23 year old Kate Finnerty, who is in the final year of her Visual Communications degree in Limerick School of Art and Design, was presented with her award by Minister of State for Tourism and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan TD. The new logo is made up of the two wheels of a bike in green and the words Bike Week in blue, designed to look as though they are in motion and in colours synonymous with the outdoors, set against a white background. The new logo will now appear throughout all of The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport’s National Bike Week digital and print communications.

Speaking at the launch, Minister O’Donovan congratulated Kate on winning the prestigious award  ” This is fantastic recognition for Kate and for the Limerick School of Art & Design where she is studying. I want to wish her well in her future studies and career.”

John Carey, from Coláiste Dun Iascaigh in Tipperary was announced as overall winner in the secondary school category of the National Bike Week logo competition. John also recently won a prize in the Green-Schools Irish Water Poster Competition. 

Minister O’Donovan was also in Limerick to announce the launch of this year’s European Cycle Challenge (ECC). The cities of Limerick, Waterford, Galway, Cork and Dublin will be taking part in the month-long cycling challenge from Monday, May 1st.

“The European Cycling Challenge gives us the opportunity to further promote cycling as a sustainable mode of transport together with using the opportunity to encourage people to take up cycling for recreation and as a means of increasing physical fitness. We have seen massive growth in cycling in Ireland over the last few years and events like this will hopefully encourage others to get out cycling across the country,” said Minister O’Donovan. “This is particularly timely given the recent report in the British Medical Journal that shows that moderate, regular cycling has significant impact on reducing the likelihood of developing cancer or heart disease.”

The ECC was launched in the city of Bologna in Italy, in 2012. To date 52 European cities have participated in the month-long cycling challenge covering some 4million kms. Last year was the first year Irish cities took part and over 100,000kms journeys by cyclists were mapped and recorded. The ECC app can be downloaded by logging on to cyclingchallenge.ie