On 6th January 2014, a gathering took place in Desmond College of past and present Young Scientists to celebrate the 50th Year of the Young Scientist Competition in Ireland. The school has a long history of involvement in the competition which dates back to 1966 when two projects were entered from the Vocational School by mentor Eamon O’Connell.
Since then the school has had tremendous success in the competition winning numerous prizes including Group Winners, Category Winners, Analog Award Winner, twice winning the Teacher of Excellence Award (Donal Enright and Marie Corkery), various Display Awards and Highly Commended. As part of the celebrations the school produced a unique publication which was compiled and coordinated to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of the Young Scientists from both the old Vocational School and Desmond College over the years.
It is a great achievement for any school to get projects accepted into this much loved and very high profile national competition, yet year after year Desmond College has succeed in getting a large number of projects accepted. We are one of the top represented schools in Ireland each year and the top Limerick school for three consecutive years.
This success is testament to the calibre of our students, the support that these students get from their parents and the support they get from their teachers. Our gathering was a wonderful night where ‘old’ Young Scientists and ‘new’ Young Scientists shared ideas, swopped stories and enjoyed each other’s company. We sincerely thank all those who came from near and far to be with us on the night.
