Cork County Council’s Local Enterprise Office Cork North and West has announced that teenage entrepreneurs from the Patrician Academy, Mallow will represent North Cork at this year’s Student Enterprise Programme National Final on Thursday 7th May in both the intermediate and senior categories.
This year, over 700 students from 16 schools took part in the annual programme, culminating in the recent North Cork Final at Spring-fort Hall Hotel.
The enterprise education initiative, funded by the Government of Ireland through Enterprise Ireland and delivered by 31 Local Enterprise Offices in local authorities throughout the country, saw over 30,000 students from over 500 secondary schools take part in 2025/2026. The pro-gramme supports students to create, design and market their own business, all with the hope of reaching the National Final.
In the Intermediate Category, the student representing North Cork at the National Final is Dylan Walsh with his business DW Sports.
In the Senior Category of the competition, North Cork will be represented by Rory O’Leary, Bill Palmer, Conor O’Leary and Ben Norton with their business “Crius AI”, an app developed to help cafe and restaurant owners manage their businesses.
North Cork has seen much success over the years with Smooth Remove from Boherbue Community School going on to win 1st place in the National Awards in 2019 in the highly competitive senior category. Eoin and Mark Sheehan from Sheehan Exterior Clean, also from Patrician Academy, won a National Award in 2024. Wrap it Up from Presentation Secondary School, Mitchelstown, won the Best Display Award previously.
The Mayor of the County of Cork, Cllr Mary Linehan Foley congratulated the students, saying, “We have a very successful student enterprise programme in North Cork. Our national finalists are excellent ambassadors for the programme and we wish them the very best of luck on 7th May. What our students are learning from the programme is that with the right supports and encouragement, they can take an idea from the classroom and develop it into a real-life business. The skills they learn along the way, such as business planning, market research, selling and teamwork, will help them become more entrepreneurial throughout their future careers.”
The local students will be competing against hundreds of other student entrepreneurs from all over Ireland at the Student Enterprise Programme National Final, taking place in the Mullingar Park Hotel on the 7th of May.
Since the Student Enterprise Programme began in 2003, over 440,000 students have taken part, learning key skills on how to create a business idea, start a business and grow a business.
Further information around the Student Enterprise Programme is available from www.studententerprise.ie and by searching #studententerprise on social media.