National award for Longford students at Enterprise Finals
Ireland’s finest young student entrepreneurs celebrated at national finals
Press Release: Monday, 12 May 2025
Students from County Longford have secured second prize in the senior category at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Finals. The finals of the Local Enterprise Office initiative took place on Thursday last in Mullingar.
Supported by Local Enterprise Office, Longford the students from Moyne Community School won second prize in the senior category. The winning students, Mia Kiernan, Emma Brennan, Aoife Cadam, Emma Gantley, Kate McKeon, and Kelly Davis worked under the guidance of their teacher, Padraig Doherty. Their student enterprise, ‘It’s a Dose’, developed fitted shoulder straps to aid with animal medical treatment application which helped improve animal handling and user safety.
The event was hosted by broadcasters Rick O’Shea and Louise Cantillon, and they were joined during the ceremony by Peter Burke, T.D. Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Employment as he announced the winners across the three main categories on the day.
There were 85 student businesses in contention across three main categories for the final in what is Ireland’s largest entrepreneurship programme for second level students. The initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country, saw over 30,000 students from 500 secondary schools across the country take part.
Michael Nevin, Head of Local Enterprise Longford said, “Year on year the Student Enterprise Programme continues to showcase the very best of Irish ingenuity and entrepreneurship amongst our secondary school students. This year produced a varied selection of businesses, from agricultural products and homemade gifts to pet apps and seaweed harvesting and some amazing winners across the board. 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 24/25 we hope to see some of our next great wave of Irish business leaders and global entrepreneurs emerge.”
The national final students, who competed across three categories, Junior, Intermediate and Senior, were all in attendance on the day exhibiting their businesses which were judged by a team of national business experts and mentors. Each student enterprise was challenged with creating, setting up and running their own business, which must show sales of their service or product. The judging panel included business owners and representatives from enterprise agencies and associated bodies.
The Student Enterprise Programme is open to students of all ages at secondary level, with three separate categories - Junior (First year), Intermediate (Second and Third year) and Senior (Fourth, Fifth and Sixth year, LVA, LCA and Youth Outreach).
The three main category winners on the day were: ‘Cannon PC’ set up by Jack Cannon from Clonkeen College in Dun Laoghaire, representing Local Enterprise Office Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (Senior Category Winner), ‘Suet & Song’, a business set up by Michael O’Keeffe from St. Kieran’s College in Kilkenny representing Local Enterprise Office, Kilkenny (Intermediate Category Winner), and ‘Bumblebees’ set up by Antonia O’ Looney, Sophie Gilard, Guiliana Keane and Katelyn Murtagh from Drumshanbo Vocational School representing Local Enterprise Office, Leitrim (Junior Category Winner).
Representing Longford in the Intermediate Category were Aine Maher and Niamh Maher of ‘Dapper Dogz’ also from Moyne Community School and in the Junior category Ella Brennan and Lucy McHale from Ardscoil Phádraig in Granard with their entry ‘E&L Horseshoes’.
The Student Enterprise Programme is funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by the 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country. Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 450,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start a business and grow a business.
The Student Enterprise Programme is one of a number of initiatives that the Local Enterprise Offices run, to foster entrepreneurship across the country. Others include Local Enterprise Week, the National Enterprise Awards, National Women’s Enterprise Day, and Local Enterprise Showcase. The Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities are funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland.
