By some estimates more than 4,000 people in Ireland now write blogs, online diaries maintained by individual writers and, increasingly, by organisations and journalists. Some US analysts suggest the blogging phenomenon has peaked there but it continues to grow worldwide.

IrishElection. com, a political website focusing on the upcoming D�il election with contributors who, the site says, "probably won't grace the Irish Times oped page", was voted Best News/Current Affairs Blog, a category sponsored by the Sunday Tribune.

Ice Cream Ireland (icecreamireland. com), a blog written by Kieran Murphy, a self-described "ice-cream man" in Dingle, won in two categories - Best Business Blog and Best Specialist Blog.

Bernie Goldbach, a lecturer at the Tipperary Insitute, was voted best technology blogger for his site (irish. typepad. com) and given a special award for contributions to the Irish "bloggersphere".

Writer Sinead Gleeson (sineadgleeson. com/blog) won for Best Arts and Culture Blog. Web2.0 entrepreneur Conor O'Neill of LouderVoice (blog. loudervoice. com) authored the blog entry voted best of the year, an account of his vasectomy.

Author RedMum (redmum. blogspot. com) was voted Best Personal Blog.

Beaut. ie was voted Best-designed Blog.

Tom's Sporting Almanac (tomssportingalmanac. blogspot. com) was voted Best Sport and Recreation Blog.