Kathriona Devereux: A ‘Eureka!’ moment watching boy who became a billionaire

It’s hard to believe it’s been 21 years since that January evening in the RDS when a young Patrick Collison stepped up to accept the top prize at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

I was hosting the award ceremony that year - bright lights, nervous students, and a heady mix of Lynx spray and hormones filled the auditorium.

At the time, I was presenting Scope, a science programme for young people, with Danann Breathnach, and we were thrilled to see curiosity and a love of science and discovery take centre stage at the RDS.

2005 feels like another world now. Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach, the Celtic Tiger was still roaring, and Mary McAleese was in the Áras.

During the prize-giving, I urged the audience to start a Mexican wave under the pretence of amping the anticipatory energy and giving them a break from continuously applauding the various category winners. But really it was to delay proceedings because the director was telling me in my earpiece, “Slow things down. President McAleese isn’t in the building yet.”

When she arrived, she handed the winning trophy to Collison, and the rest is history.

Confetti floated in the air, Patrick’s proud parents beamed, and all were delighted that another worthy Young Scientist winner had been crowned. Little did anyone in the room know that we were witnessing the birth of a billionaire.

I was invited onto RTÉ’s The Den with Collison afterwards to talk about his success and the importance of the Young Scientist competition. Patrick was only 16, calm and articulate.

It was a surreal encounter with Dustin the Turkey and his unique interview style of slagging. You can find the clip online.

Patrick patiently explaining the computer language he had written to a puppet and presenter Francis Boylan, who was inexplicably wearing a glam-rock-style mullet wig.

Patrick held his own against that indomitable turkey and admitted, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next” when asked what his future plans were.

But it was clear from that brief encounter that he was destined for great things. Though none of us, of course, imagined that the polite student from Limerick would one day start a company valued in the billions, or that his firm, Stripe, would return as the Young Scientist’s headline sponsor two decades later. What a perfect full circle moment.

While 2005 seems like a lifetime ago - the smoking ban was only a year old, Angela Merkel became Germany’s first female chancellor, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans - some things remain unchanged.

Last week the RDS was still lined with poster displays that distilled the work and findings of months of students’ hard work and discoveries. And the booths were still manned by smart, articulate, and passionate students full of enthusiasm for their chosen project subject.

Back in the early noughties, the talk was of developing the ‘knowledge economy’. Encouraging young people to study STEM subjects to help bolster the ICT and pharma industries.

The Young Scientist competition had been running since 1965, and was getting bigger, and under the sponsorship of BT was viewed as a bright showcase of the country’s scientific potential.

It was clear Ireland was filled with young talent who believed that good ideas could shape a better future.

Even though the ‘knowledge economy’ is now firmly established, fuelling curiosity and creativity around new discoveries is as important as ever.

And continually encouraging young people to understand and appreciate the scientific process is vital in these days of misinformation, distrust and deepfakes - when you can barely trust what you are seeing with your own eyes.

Now, with Stripe as the competition sponsor, it is heartening to see that core optimism remains.

Collison is keen to encourage young people to pursue their interests and explore their curiosities outside the classroom and the confines of the school curriculum.

This year’s winner, 15-year-old Aoibheann Daly from Tralee in Kerry, certainly didn’t find the answers for a diagnostic tool for brain cancer sitting in her Senior Cycle Biology textbook.

A couple of years ago, she first learned about the low survival rate of the brain cancer glioblastoma and wondered if she could do something to improve the situation.

She applied her self-taught coding skills and developed an AI model that helps accelerate brain tumour treatment.

It’s a stunning achievement for a person only 15 years on this planet.

It’s so exciting to think what people like Aoibheann and all the other 2025 winners will go on to do.

If they apply their talents to tackle some of the world’s most intractable problems, who knows what they will achieve?

The entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ireland meant that Patrick Collison and his brother John established Stripe in the US because that was where they were best able to grow and scale their company.

The hope remains that Ireland will birth another billionaire. Ideally, one that will establish their business in Ireland.

In another 21 years, when commentators look back on 2025, they will most likely describe it as a fraught time. A time of geopolitical instability when AI was having a moment and technology was disrupting every aspect of how people lived their lives.

Hopefully, the Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition will still be thriving, and nurturing the latest batch of Ireland’s brightest minds.