'It's pandemonium': Young Scientist winners get heroes' welcome in Tipperary
Shane O'Connor and Liam Carew making their way to the Abbey School, Tipperary Town in an open top car on Monday. Picture: Brian Arthur
“This is like New York; it's pandemonium.”
Such was the scene in Tipperary Town on Monday morning as students lined the streets in a guard of honour to welcome home the winners of this year’s BT Young Scientist award.
To cheers and claps from their classmates, Shane O’Connor and Liam Carew held their prize aloft as they made their way to the Abbey School grounds on top of a vintage electric blue Ford convertible.
It has been a whirlwind few days for sixth years Liam, of Mount Buris, and Shane, of Tipperary Town, both 18, since they were crowned the overall winners of the prestigious annual competition.
It is the first time the school has brought home the overall national award, and it is the first time in more than a decade that the award has been won outside of Dublin or Cork. Conversation at the school gates focused on what an achievement the win is for the local community.
It was standing room only inside the Abbey School PE hall, with primary pupils from Mount Buris National School, St Michael’s Boys School, and the Monastery Primary School among the packed audience.
The sheer scale and detail of the data collected by Liam and Shane easily puts their BT Young Scientist project on the same level as a doctorate degree.
With the support of teachers Eavan Ryan and Niamh McCarthy, the boys spent the last three years charting the experiences of students through the most turbulent time for adolescents in recent memory.
A project originally borne out of lockdown, the pair gathered input from 2,500 students and 250 teachers. They mapped input from every type of student and every type of school, analysing and illustrating their findings with perfect clarity.
They managed to create a vital database so precious officials and statisticians can only dream of — detailed research on the inner school lives of students, by students. In fact, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has already been in contact.
What makes their win all the more impressive is the dedication and determination they showed to their research. Last year, the pair submitted their project for consideration but it did not make the cut for the finals.
“A lot of us here in the room, we’ve all had knockback, we’ve all had kickbacks, failures, and disappointments along the way," school principal John Kiely told the audience. “You can either take those knockbacks and use them as a motivation to keep going or you can give up.”
But giving up was “never an option” for Liam and Shane, he said, noting their passion for their work.
In November, Shane and Liam will represent Ireland in Brussels at the EU Contest for Young Scientists. Closer to home and in the meantime, the pair will sit their mocks in two weeks.
They are interested in a potential career in sociology or psychology. "We'll see what happens in the future, just take it as it comes," said Liam.
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