Roscommon's Naughton brothers win Student Enterprise Special Achievement Award

Roscommon's Naughton brothers, known for the Join Our Boys campaign supporting their health journey with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, took home a Special Achievement Award at the Student Enterprise Programme Awards National Finals recently.

Supported by Local Enterprise Office Roscommon, Isaac and George Naughton from Roscommon Community College won the Special Achievement Award for their project ‘“Beo go Deo”, which is an innovative Irish lifestyle brand creating natural flavoured beverages using sustainably sourced ingredients.

They were supported by their teacher Denise Staunton.

Also representing Roscommon in the Senior Category of this year’s competition were Darragh Conroy and Oisin Connolly from Roscommon Community College with their project “Split Smart”.

Both groups were honoured at the county Student Enterprise Awards in Roscommon in March.

This year’s event was hosted by broadcasters Rick O’Shea and Roscommon town native Ruth Scott, and they were joined during the ceremony by Alan Dillon, T.D., Minister of State for Employment, Small Business and Retail to announce the winners across the three main categories on the day.

In all, there were 88 student businesses featuring dynamic and innovative business ideas in contention across three main categories for the Final in what is Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students.

Speaking following the awards, Enda Cannon Acting Head of Enterprise said: “Year on year the Student Enterprise Programme continues to showcase the very best of innovation and entrepreneurship amongst our secondary school students.

“We see every year that the National Finals are not an end point for our student entrepreneurs, but a stepping stone on the next stage of their entrepreneurial journey. From our class of 25/26 we hope to see some of our next great wave of Roscommon business leaders and global entrepreneurs emerge.

“I’d like to warmly congratulate all of our students from County Roscommon who represented us, not only at this year’s national awards but also our students and their teachers who participated in our county awards earlier this year. The standard of business innovation and entrepreneurship is in very good hands as we look to the future,” Mr. Cannon said.

The Student Enterprise Programme is open to students of all ages at secondary level, with three separate categories - Junior (1st year), Intermediate (2nd and 3rd year) and Senior (4th, 5th and 6th year, LVA, LCA and Youth Outreach).

The main category winners were: ‘GloHurling’ set up by Cathal Sweeney from Mungret Community College, representing Local Enterprise Office Limerick (Senior Category Winner), ‘Smart Shovel’, a business set up by Aodhan Finegan and Leon Egan from St. Patrick’s Classical School Navan representing Local Enterprise Office Meath (Intermediate Category Winner), and ‘I Can’ set up by Paddy Lynch and Tom McDonald from St. Mary’s CBS, Portlaoise representing Local Enterprise Office Laois (Junior Category Winner).