THE email was from a senior executive at Apple. “Your son has developed an excellent game, but he needs access to a Mac to finish his work,” it read. “If his game is published by Apple, he will be the youngest European developer of an app.”

Last year he was the youngest person in Europe to develop an app for the Apple store. Now a Waterford schoolboy is about to become the youngest speaker at the world’s largest conference for entrepreneurs, being held in Silicon Valley.