Wheelie good idea: Roscommon TY students win enterprise award for bin compactor

Roscommon Community College students Josh McCormack and Evan McNeil have been named winners of the senior category of the Student Enterprise Programme after designing a compactor for wheelie bin rubbish.

At an awards ceremony in Croke Park on Friday, 82 shortlisted student businesses were showcased after being whittled down from 25,000 initial entries. Josh and Evan, both in transition year, took home the top prize for students from fourth to sixth year after judges were impressed with their McCompactor product.

“Our teacher in Roscommon Community College, Paul McLaughlin, we met him in the corridor one day [and we were] stuck for an idea,” explains McNeil when asked for their inspiration. “We asked him did he have anything and he said: ‘I’m always jumping into my bin, make something for me that would make it easier for me instead of hopping into the bin and falling out of it.’ From there, we came up with this idea.”

Caitlin Morris, from Moyne Community School, Co Longford, won the intermediate category, open to second- and third-year students, for her project Clip Clop Designs. Morris, who is an experienced equestrian rider, designs and sells bespoke decorative horseshoe gifts such as Christmas decorations and pet memorials.

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In the junior category for first-year students, Alex O’Looney, Freya Whitney and Amy Keaveney of Drumshanbo Vocational School in Co Leitrim were awarded the top prize for their farm safety project. Named Gasper, the product opens the lid of a slurry tank without farmers having to bend to lift the lid. Their inspiration came when Alex O’Looney became concerned after watching her grandfather bending down to try to open a slatted tank cover with his fingers and a pitchfork.

The product is sold both in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the three girls are visiting engineering companies to develop the idea.