Bunratty is the top chess tournament in Ireland every year.  This year there were nearly 250 competitors and it was a very successful event for Galway players.

The highlight was the Minor section where Mark Monahan (who won the Galway Congress earlier this year) won the tournament with Andrew Staunton runner-up.  Well done to both.   In the top section, won by GM Baburin, Tony Aherne got the grading prize (which was originally awarded in error to Zaidan Zulkipli, both from Galway.

Below are the 3 winners from the tournament (although Zaidan's prize was later taken away from him and given to Tony Aherne as explained in the full tournament report on the ICU website (l-r: Andrew, Mark, Zaidan):

The background to Mark's head gives a bit of a biblical aura to the photo i think.

Here's Tony (left - grading prize winner) and Zaidan at the tournament:

 

A quick look at the rest of the results (here) shows that there were other strong performances from Galway players.   Well done to David Piercy,  Cian and Sean Guinan (Tuam), Fiona Gavin and Darren Kelly for scoring 4/6 in the Minors - unlucky not to win grading prizes.   Strong performances in the Major section from Kevin Fitzpatrick (who was only stopped by the no 2 seed), Eamon Abberton and Ron Cummins (Ballinasloe - who was unbeaten after a first round loss) and also from Marek Maslonka in the Challengers.