'This is not just a win for Shane and Liam but also for Tipperary Town,' says principal

When the 2023 BT Young Scientist winners, Shane O’Connor and Liam Carew from The Abbey School in Tipperary Town, were asked how they felt when their names were announced as overall winners of the competition, their answer was exactly what you’d expect.

“We were calm and collected and took it as it came. It was quite an overwhelming thing with the audience standing up for you and there is a wall of light in front of you and TV cameras and reporters looking for your reaction. It’s a wonderful experience and something that would be very hard to recreate. We thought that we were in for some sort of award as 13 judges came to our stand on Friday but we had no idea that it would be the top award,” said Shane.

Liam said that he hopes that people appreciate the work that went into the project.

“We have met so many people who are really happy for the county, the town and the people of Tipperary and of course for us and our success. It is really great now for us to represent the county and the country going forward. We are so very grateful for the homecoming received here. There wasn’t just staff and students here but members of the wider community and everyone is so delighted for us and we are so appreciative of that,” added Liam.

“This is not just a win for Shane and Liam but also for Tipperary Town,” says The Abbey School principal, John Kiely.

Mr Kiely said that the BT Young Scientist win was not just a win for Shane O’Connor and Liam Carew and the Abbey community but was also a win for Tipperary and for Tipperary Town in particular. Mr Kiely was speaking at the homecoming reception in The Abbey School which was attended by students, teachers and staff of the school along with a huge crowd from the local community.

“This is a significant victory for Tipperary Town and to win a national prize of this scale is a significant ‘shot in the arm’ for the entire area. In time the boys will appreciate the impact that their victory will have had on the wider area. It is indeed historic, a first for the Abbey, and Shane and Liam now join a very elite club of national prizewinners. What you have done in the last three years and your success in the last few days can never be taken from you. You will always be the 2023 National BT Young Scientists of the Year. Last year you submitted your project but it wasn’t accepted to go any further to the final.

“Like a lot of us here we have all had knock backs, disappointments or failures of one kind or another along the way and you can either take those knockbacks and use them as a motivation to keep going or you can give up.

“For Shane and Liam giving up was never an option and I would have thought that going into Sixth Year that you might leave it go and concentrate on your Leaving Certificate. Not these two boys however but not these two boys. Giving up was never an option and you were so passionate about your project that all you could think about was how to expand it, improve it and make it better and to get to the RDS this year. The quality of your work is of a standard which could only be matched by someone undertaking a Masters or a Doctorate. The detail and the broad depth of data that you have gathered from 2,500 students and 250 teachers who filled out the surveys, and the depth of analysis, could only be matched by someone at that level. For a social sciences project it is in the absolute elite category of achievement,” said Mr Kiely.