Claremorris student awarded prestigious Naughton Foundation scholarship

A former student from St Colman's College in Claremorris has been awarded a Naughton Foundation Scholarship worth €24,000 at a ceremony in the Trinity Business School in Dublin.

Evan Reilly was presented by founding patrons of the Naughton Foundation, Dr Martin Naughton, and his wife Carmel, who were joined by former Taoiseach Enda Kenny to present winning students with their awards and cheques.

Supporting academic and innovative excellence in Irish students, the Naughton Foundation Scholarship Awards are an investment in the future of Ireland's reputation as a country with outstanding graduates promoting the study of engineering, science, and technology at third level. The County Mayo winner, Evan Reilly, is a former student of St. Colman’s College, and has now accepted a place studying Biomedical Science at University of Galway.

Since its establishment in 2008, scholarships worth over €6 million have been awarded to over 350 students. The scheme started in three counties and has continued to expand annually to become a nationwide scheme in 2016. There is one guaranteed scholarship (€24,000) for each participating county, with some counties awarded more than one scholarship and each scholarship is worth €6,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three- or four-year undergraduate degree.

Evan joins 37 exceptional Irish students who were awarded third level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science, technology, and maths. The prize winner’s former secondary school, St. Colman’s College, was awarded a prize of €1,000 towards their school’s science facilities, for their support of their winning student. More than 250 schools have also benefited from this prize to date with some schools receiving it on more than one occasion.

Speaking about the growth and development of the programme over the past fourteen years, Dr Martin Naughton has said: “We are delighted to have been able to help and contribute in some small way to support undergraduate studies in the STEM fields in Ireland since 2008. We are very conscious of the pressures on students to finance their full times studies and with the increased costs they face and are therefore increasing our annual Scholarship awards to €6,000 per annum for all of our new and existing Naughton Scholars €24,000 for their four-year degree. When we meet these young engineers, researchers, and mathematicians I am very happy knowing that we have invested in Ireland’s wealth creators and leaders of the future.”

Pictured above are, from left: Martin and Carmel Naughton; Roy Hession, Principal, St Colman's College; County Mayo scholar Evan Reilly from St Colman’s College and former Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the 2023 Naughton Foundation Scholarship awards held at Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin. Pic: Kieran Harnett