€20k. boost for Mayo school ahead of world robotics finals in Dallas

By Patrick Hennelly

It's full steam ahead for St. Joseph’s Primary School, Ballinrobe, as the school is preparing to take part in the VEX IQ World Robotics Championships, which are set to take place in Dallas, Texas, from May 12 to May 14.

The big news is that Thermo King has presented a €20,000 cheque to help cover the school's costs of participating in the event.

A group of nine fifth class pupils and their teachers, Ms. Edel Roache and Mr. Sean Flannelly, will make the trip on May 10, along with a number of parents.

This is the second year in a row that pupils from St. Joseph’s Primary School have competed at the VEX IQ World Robotics Championships, with the school receiving honours at last year’s event.

Last year St. Joseph’s collected the ‘Innovate’ award for their skills in demonstrating an effective and well documented engineering design process for a specific aspect of their team’s design of gameplay strategy.

The south Mayo school qualified for the 2025 World Championships having secured two awards at the VEX IQ National Robotics Competition which was held in the Munster Technological University, Cork, back in February. The awards were the Innovate Award as well as the Robot Skills Award.

The school is very grateful to all their sponsors, who have been so helpful and generous in helping to fund this upcoming journey to Texas.

Thermo King presented a €20,000 cheque for the school to participate in the VEX IQ World Robotics Championship.

St. Joseph’s principal Ms. Dymphna Culhane is very proud of what the school has achieved thus far.

“They are amazing students and we are extremely proud of them. We never thought that we would have this success two years in a row. The support that we have from the local community and from various companies has been phenomenal," she stated.

"There were eight awards given out at last year’s World Championship and our school won the Innovate Award.

"We would love to repeat that feat and win an award again, however, it is a very competitive event and there are thousands of children from around the world competing for honours.

"The main thing is for the children to have the experience of competing at an event like this”.

Ms Edel Roache explained that preparation and team work are vital ingredients for this project.

“The excitement is really building here in the school since our national success in Cork in February, and now we are preparing for the world championships in Dallas.

"The pupils have been working on our robot, our log books, and today we are doing a presentation for our very kind sponsors who have been very supportive.

“It is a real team effort and when you are over there the competition really begins to take off, as you are involved in different matches - sometimes up to 10 per-day with different teams from around the world.

"It is great to have some of the parents there as well to support us, and those staying at home will be able to watch the event online via the VEX World TV.

“Including St. Joseph’s there are four teams travelling from Ireland, with two from Donegal and one from Cork.

"There will be 53 countries competing at this event and they are as far away as Sydney Australia, Singapore, to Los Angeles. It is also a great opportunity for the kids to meet other children from different parts of the world”.

“We hope to do our very best and to secure another award, but the main thing is to secure maximum points. We hope to do ourselves and our country very proud over there and I think we have a good chance.”

Mr. Sean Flannelly said that the logistics will be less daunting this year.

“The experience from last year’s World Championships will help. We are a lot more confident with the logistics this year travelling over to Dallas. The venue over there is massive, however, we have the experience from last year and that will be of benefit to us."

Colm Mitchell, who is the operations manager with Thermo King, is proud that his company are supporting St. Joseph’s Primary School.

“When Thermo King gets an opportunity to become involved in the community we have a team called the ‘Purple Team’ and they invest time into projects like this.

"The future is bright when you see pupils from rural Ireland competing on the world stage, and Thermo King is proud to be associated with that," he added.

The St. Joseph’s fifth class pupils involved in the VEX IQ World Robotics Championships are: Rian Hennelly, Matthew O’Toole, Jacob Connolly, Jack Daly, Roland Roche Szabo, Kayla Gilraine, Andrew Gentry, Emilia Slowik, Hazel DeRhen, Aoibhín Kelly, and Adam Heneghan.

PHOTO: Pupils of St. Joseph's NS, Ballinrobe, with principal Dympna Culhane (first on left), teachers Sean Flannelly (second in from left) and Edel Roache (first in from the right) along with Colm Mitchell (Thermo King) at the presentation event.

Thermo King presented a €20,000 cheque for the school to participate in the VEX IQ World Robotics Championship.