Cowen Google Doodle

Taoiseach Brian Cowen could soon become the face of Google on St Patrick’s Day - and it is all down to a young 18-year-old student from Cork.

The boss man may be spending our national holiday meeting and greeting the great and the good in American politics - including fellow Offaly man President Barack Obama - but all eyes will be on the google.ie homepage to see if he has won this particular election!

Aoife O’Leary is a student at the Mount Mercy College in Cork and she has entered her own Google Doodle in a special competition organised by internet search engine giants Google.

The task at hand for Irish students was to create a doodle around the idea of ‘My Ireland’ and describe what Ireland means to them.

According to Aoife, ‘My Ireland today is overshadowed by the doom and gloom of recession’.

“I wanted to bring a humourous aspect to this. I drew a charicature of our Taoiseach looking anxious. I included a cartoon of a tiger appearing sad with a duffle bad to represent the end of the Celtic Tiger,” Aoife said in her entry.

Hundreds of students across Ireland entered the competition and the final has been whittled down to just a few - including this great creation from Aoife.

So if you want to see Brian Cowen win at least one election this year and become the face of Google for one day only, get your skates on. Voting closes at midnight on February 16 next.

To vote, go to www.google.ie/doodle4google.