Longford student awarded prestigious €20,000 scholarship

A Longford student has been awarded a Naughton Foundation Scholarship worth €20,000.

Shane Hanley was presented with the coveted scholarship by founding patrons of the Naughton Foundation, Dr Martin Naughton, and his wife Carmel, at a ceremony in the Trinity Business School in Dublin last Saturday.

A former student of Mercy Secondary School, Ballymahon, Shane has accepted a place studying Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at University of Limerick.

Shane joins thirty-seven exceptional Irish students who were awarded third level scholarships towards their studies in the areas of engineering, science, technology, and maths.

His former secondary school, Mercy Ballymahon, was awarded a prize of €1,000 towards the school’s science facilities.

Saturday’s ceremony was also attended by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science  Simon Harris TD.

Supporting academic and innovative excellence, 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.

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 (€20,000) for each participating county, with some counties awarded more than one scholarship and each scholarship is worth €5,000 per annum for each year of a student’s three- or four-year undergraduate degree.

Speaking about the growth and development of the programme over the past fourteen years, Dr. Martin Naughton said: “We started supporting students in their science and engineering studies in Louth, Meath, and Monaghan in 2008 to give back to our local area. We never imagined what a wonderful community of connected young people the Naughton Scholarship programme would become.  Our Alumni are an incredible group working in the best Universities, research institutes and businesses across the world. Each year we hear back from them on the value of this network to them and the connections it has given them across disciplines and Ireland.  They are a wonderful group of young people that are all giving back to society in their own way that we are very proud to be connected with.”