A MERCY Mounthawk student was among the winners at the regional finals of the Rotary International Youth Leadership competition announced this afternoon.

Darragh Clark from Leith, a fifth year student, was among the seven finalists in the competition, nominated by Rotary Clubs in Kerry and Cork, with three selected as winners.

“I’m ecstatic about it,” said Darragh, who explained the process after he was chosen at The Imperial Hotel on Tuesday afternoon.

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“First of all you had to be nominated by a teacher, then we had interviews in the school and from there to the Tralee Rotary Club interviews. I was selected from there for the regional finals,” said Darragh who was nominated by Sherma Carey at Mounthawk school.

Judges conducted interviews with the seven finalists during the morning before selecting the three winners after a lunch at the hotel. Darragh is now looking forward to visiting the Dáil, Stormont and the EU Parliament with 23 other winners from around the country.

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The other two regional winners selected were from Cork – Tim O’Driscoll from Bandon and Alan O’Sullivan from Bishopstown.

Alison Boardman of Tralee Rotary Club was delighted that the club hosted the regional final for the first time and for their representative, Darragh.

“It’s fantastic to have Darragh represent Kerry, Tralee and Mercy Mounthawk. We say Rotary is about service above self and the young people in their schools and in their project are doing such good work in the community. It gives us a lot of hope for the future,” she said.

Alison invited more people to get involved in Rotary Tralee which meets for lunch every Tuesday at 1pm in The Imperial Hotel for lunch.  Contact a Rotary Tralee member or click here for their website