BIG INTERVIEW: 'We had never done anything like the Late Late before...'

It was a really special Monday morning on January 16 in Tipperary Town as the community came out in force to welcome home the heroes of the BT Young Scientist competition.

It was a memorable Friday 13th for Shane O’Connor and Liam Carew, aged 18 and in Sixth Year in The Abbey School, as they were announced winners of the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE).

Shane and Liam won with their project which was titled: “Assessing the impact of second-level education on key aspects of adolescents’ life and development”.

The cold frosty morning on Monday didn’t deter people from coming out onto the streets to see Shane and Liam being paraded through the town in an open top car.

It has been a long time since there were such scenes of happiness and joy in the town as national media took centre stage with a “good news story” and a really important boost for the town.

A major national award for Tipperary Town made for a very special weekend for the boys and for the community of Tipperary and it was a really special event as the boys made their way in an open top car and with a garda escort for the occasion.

As they made their way through the Market Yard the excitement was palpable and it was quite a sight to see the Abbey students form a Guard of Honour all the way from the Kickham statue down Kickham Place and to the school grounds.

The homecoming heroes were cheered all the way through the school grounds and into the school hall where they were met by a rapturous welcome from the huge crowd.

Abbey students, teachers and staff, past pupils and past teachers, Board of Management reps, primary school pupils and teachers and members of the wider community had packed into the school hall to hear principal John Kiely welcome the vast crowd and the guests of honour and to hear that this was a “significant victory for Tipperary Town”.

Mr Kiely paid fulsome tributes to Shane and Liam and to the Abbey teachers and particularly to Science teachers Ms Niamh McCarthy and Ms Eavan Ryan.

When asked how they were coping with the sudden public and media attention, Shane said: “We were definitely thrown in at the deep end with all the media attention but we have taken it as it comes. We steadied ourselves in preparation for what was to come and worked our way through it. After the announcement in the RDS we went straight over to the Late Late Show, followed by Ireland AM the following morning and 2FM later in the day. On Saturday night we had a Gala Dinner and the homecoming on Monday was really the cherry on the cake for us.”

Liam said that the homecoming was really special. “It was great to come back home after being in Dublin since Wednesday and to meet all the teachers and students, our families and the wider public in Tipperary. The competition was underway since Wednesday so we were well used to telling the story of our project. We had 13 judges at our stand on Friday and we had a number of others on the previous days. We had never done anything like the Late Late before so it was a case of relax as much as you can and try to take it in your stride,” said Liam.

The project which the boys engaged in was conducted in three waves over 24 months with 2,500 responses examining how secondary school students perceived school to impact on their social, physical and mental wellbeing. I asked the boys how they felt about being overall winners of the BT Young Scientist for 2023.

“When you sit in a room at the award ceremony and see how many students are involved and that is only a third of the entrants, and then to be declared top of the top is a really big thing. I think it means a lot to the people here in Tipperary as well because it’s the first time since 1989 that a school from Tipperary has won the competition and the first time since 2008 that it’s been brought outside Dublin or Cork. Everybody has been coming up to us the last few days saying that we are so happy for you and for Tipperary and that it’s a project that we can understand and relate to,” said Shane. Liam agreed that it was a really big thing for the community.

“It’s super for us to win. We entered two years ago when it was online but it’s nothing like the experience in the RDS. When your name is called out in front of thousands of people and you are crowned the winner over 550 projects, it’s a super unbelievable achievement. It was a great surprise and we were shocked I suppose at first but it is now starting to sink in,” said Liam.

When asked what their main message is from the project, Shane said: “Our main message is to put theory into action from now on. We have seen over the last couple of years that wellbeing has been introduced into the curriculum and it’s been very theory-based as in books. What we found in our project was that one school that put the theory into action resulted in the experience of their students improving exponentially. One simple action results in a massive reaction so if you can do something and take an action it really will result in a positive outcome,” said Shane. Liam expanded on this by referring to outcomes from the project.

“It’s the simple things like lunchtime activities, every student getting involved, creating good pastoral care, good school community and a nice environment for everyone to work in for students and teachers. If this is implemented you will see results,” said Liam. For Shane and Liam this is just the beginning as they bring their project to a wider audience.

“Next it’s definitely to bring our project to an international stage and to a European stage. We have the international youth science forum in London, which is more of a discussion based forum where people from all over the world come together and meet. I think that discussion is often where great results can be developed from. We will be well prepared after that ahead of the European Young Scientist competition in Brussels in September,” said Shane.

I asked Liam as to how they were coping with the pressure of Leaving Certificate and upcoming exams. “First things first we will get back to class tomorrow and to prepare for our Leaving Certificate and our mocks in two weeks’ time. We will refocus again then for the exams proper, send in our CAO for the Leaving Certificate and undertake our exams in June and then see what the summer holds. Based on our project for the last two to three years our work has been very much centred on the areas of sociology and psychology so it’s definitely something that both I and Shane would have an interest in. Whether we explore that in the future I can’t say now as we just have to see what the future holds, but it’s definitely something that we are considering.”

Shane added that they will keep their options open but that the skills they have learned over the last number of years are transferable to anything such as communication, presentation or research.

“It’s been such a long time since it was won in Tipperary that there might have been a feeling that winning the competition was for other schools but now this win shows that any school in this county or any other county can achieve national success and it’s not just a call for Dublin-based schools, but it’s a national competition that can be won by any school in any county,” said Shane.