Cork secondary school students advance to national enterprise final in Croke Park

TRANSITION Year students from a Cork secondary school will go forward and represent the school in a national final in Croke Park on Friday, May 5.

The four TY students from Coláiste Muire in Cobh Ben Hamilton, Adam O’Leary, Callum Gormley-Barrett and Billy Murphy came up with a novel product and service that recently won the main award at the Young Enterprise South Cork awards.

The team were presented with the award on Wednesday, March 22 at their secondary school. Ciara O’Callaghan a teacher in the co-educational secondary school said it was ‘great’ to see their hard work throughout the academic year being acknowledged. 

“The four students on the team won the regional Cork South awards on Tuesday, March 14 and they were presented with the award by the Local Enterprise Office on Wednesday, March 22. Receiving the award was lovely for the students. It was great to see all their hard work being acknowledged,” he said.

“The awards are held as part of Transition Year and is held in conjunction with the Local Enterprise Office,” the teacher said. “The product they came up with was a product and a service. It is a student ID so they can get discounts in shops to deal with the current cost-of-living crisis. They also developed an app as well. It was a great idea. They are very creative lads. This team also won a second award on the day and then won the overall award.

“They came up with such a practical product and service. They have sold the student IDs in our school and they are planning now to make pitches in different schools.

“They are very dedicated and great to work with. They are great students. They were so interested in this project. They really enjoyed the whole process of coming up with a product and a service,” she added.

Ms O’Callaghan said the students will now represent Cork in the national final in Croke Park in May. “They will now go on to represent Cork in the national final.

“This will be held in Croke Park on Friday, May 5. It is great for the school, the students and their families.

“It is a great achievement. We are very proud of them.”