The April winner of Blog Post of the Month was an emotionally heavy but uplifting post about death and loss and what remains, this month’s winner is on a different part of the blogging spectrum.

The May Blog post of the Month is very educational for new and existing bloggers. Darragh Doyle blogged how to leave and encourage comments on blogs and the reaction alone from people (see all the comments) and the number of people who nominated it for Post of the Month prove that a post on the most basic part of blogging was sorely needed. Congratulations Darragh. A trophy is on the way and 02 and Nokia will be sending on an N95 to you.

The light went out. This was nominated by a few people and I think this text from one of the people that nominated the post covers why it’s deserving:

The post “The Light Went Out” moved me to tears and made me get in my car and go home for the weekend to spend much overdue time with my parents and grandmother. And for that alone I’m grateful to Grannymar for putting up such a personal post.

Grannymar also wins a swanky Nokia N95 thanks to sponsorship by O2 and Nokia Ireland. The trophy is now on the way to her to add to her collection. Don’t forget there’s still time to nominate posts for May. The May winner will be announced early in June.

As a way of keeping interest going in the Blog Awards, there will be a “Blog Post of the Month” awarded to an Irish Blogger/Group of Bloggers who has/have written what the judges deem the best post that month. The judging criteria is totally arbitrary but we can reveal the use of star signs, tidal movements and a special breed of chicken.

If you want to nominate a blog post, simply blog about it and link to it and this blog post or if you want to nominate the blog privately, fill out this form. Any blogger who campaigns to get nominations will be found out and will be removed from consideration. Nominate yourself if you think you’re worth it.

Update: Forgot to add that if a sponsor also wants to get involved and give something worthwhile to the monthly winner, then let us know. IrishAwards < at > gmail.com or contact Damien via Mulley.net

Thanks to Conn from Edgecast who very obviously put a lot of work into this very professional podcast.

You can also download direct from here.

The RaboDirect Podcast will be made available towards the end of the week. We should also have the fantastic George Bush intros included in it too. All the nominations, acceptance speechs and the rest will be up on it. Stay tuned!