STORM TRACKER: Follow 'Storm Amy' as it bears down on Ireland amid brutal forecast
Search
06 Sept 2025
Search
06 Sept 2025
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Left: Mercy Secondary School Ballymahon students Lily Leonard, Demi Deko and Lucia Hoysted taking part in The Big Idea Picture: Joshua Mulholland
Students from Longford were among the prize winners in Ireland’s national creative thinking programme The Big Idea.
Team Immoderate at Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon won the Hidden Poverty award for their development of an idea for confidential App ‘Incognation’ to build an online community and provide information, resources and support for people experiencing poverty.
The students, under the guidance of teachers Rachel Beirne and Niall Finneran, will progress to a B!G Idea accelerator in September, where they can develop their idea further with industry experts.
The Big Idea is delivered through the Leaving Cert Applied (LCA) and Transition Year (TY) programmes, as well as an expanded pilot Youthreach and Community Training Centre (CTC) programme.
It was delivered across 22 counties this year, with a successful pilot programme trialled in Northern Ireland.
Students were tasked with working through the four Ds of the creative process – discover, define, develop and deliver - focusing on solutions for issues they identified as major stressors in their lives.
These were mental health, climate change, hidden poverty, displaced people, and diversity and inclusion, all aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
With the help of hundreds of Big Idea mentors from a range of sectors, they develop a digital experience, product, service, space or place, or a tech solution to tackle that issue.
The Big Exhibition which includes every project submitted this year is now live at thebigidea.ie, where schools and mentors can also sign up for the next term.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
