An 11-year-old Dubliner has been honoured with the ESB TechSpacer of the Year award for sharing his personal story of anxiety in a song and video.
Shaun Samra - aka MC Samra - from Finglas received the award for his track Anxiety at the 2020 ESB Creative Tech Fest, which was held virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions.
The annual event celebrates the innovation and creativity of young people across the country who take part in the TechSpace education programme.
Shaun joined a TechSpace programme run by youth worker Mick McCullough in the Finglas Youth Resource Centre a little over a year ago.
Through the programme he has learned how to use studio technology to unlock his creative potential, reducing his anxiety in the process.
"I'm very grateful to my youth worker Mick, the Finglas Youth Centre and TechSpace for everything they have done to help me this last year," Shaun told RTÉ Entertainment after he arrived home from school on Wednesday.
"I hope that talking about anxiety will go more mainstream so it can help other children. It has really helped me so much to do this, and I am so proud of myself and very happy that I won the ESB TechSpacer of the Year Award.
"And I also want to thank my mam, Amanda."
For more on the TechSpace programme and the ESB Creative Tech Fest, visit: techspace.ie.
