Congratulations to George O’Leary, who is this year’s Winner of the Young Economist of the Year 2020 Competition ( TY Category). His project entitled ‘When China Sneezes; Ireland Catches a Cold’, examined government policy in relation to Irish company’s trade with China and the repercussions following the outbreak of Covid19 initially in China. George’s inspiration for this project came as a result of a trip to China during TY.
While in China, George saw the level of production in full flight before Covid19 and read about the many Irish companies that had begun trading with China in recent years. He knew he wanted to investigate this further on his return and the Young Economist of the Year Competition gave him the opportunity to do this. George said ‘I was able to highlight some anomalies in terms of overly positive recommendations to Irish businesses being encouraged to trade with China. My project grew legs once Covid19 took hold as all my predictions and reservations came to fruition. It was a very exciting project to do and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. https://aspireregenerativehealth.com/ ’ George would like to thank his economics teacherMs Mairead O’Sullivan for all the support and direction she gave him with his winning project.
From thousands of entries that culminated in hundreds of finalists, students all gathered online on Friday 19th June to witness the virtual ceremony viewed in homes around the country. Glenstal Abbey School was proud to have 22 students in total competing in the Young Economist of the Year Final 2020 and are very proud to have George’s achievement in the Senior Category as well as a Junior team who were placed third in the Junior Category with their project. Four other teams won gold and silver medals.
Glenstal were among the Junior Prize Winners with a Trophy for third place: William Waller, Callum Hughes, Edward Franklin and Aedan O’Kelly (Team Captain). Their team project was an investigation into the factors affecting the Irish economy of inward tourism into Ireland in 2020.
Young Economist First Year Gold Medal Winners – A Farmer’s Life for Me?
Glenstal Abbey School had another Gold medal team among the winners, with their project entitled “A Farmer’s Life for me? – An investigation into the economic consequences for young people who opt for a life in agriculture rather than other professional pursuits. The team was captained by Tommy McNamara and included Alex Courtney, Olivier Hilaire, Fionn Stack and Oliver Springett
There were three silver medal winning teams in total from Glenstal Abbey School at the Final. These included a project investigating the effects of Ireland’s imports and exports on the Irish Economy. This team comprised Colum Hanly, Paul O’Kane( captain), Anselme Callens and Christian Kinahan
Hugo Phelan captained the silver medal winning team that researched the Gender Pay Gap in Sport. His teammates were Lochlann Frawley and Donncha Ó Murthuile and Eric White.
A fifth team among the silver medal winners were Cillian O’Donovan (team captain), Cillian Plummer, Teak Williams and Frederick Japy.
Glenstal are no strangers to the Young Economist of the Year Competition as last year two TY students Cillian O’Sullivan and Laurence Tuohy travelled to St Petersburg to compete in the International Economics Olympiad representing Ireland and Glenstal at the prestigious event.
Congratulations to George and to all the Glenstal representatives who did us proud at this year’s Young Economist of the Year Competition.
Finally, none of this would be possible without the support of Ms. Mairead O’Sulliven, Head of the Business Department in Glenstal and all the teachers of Business throughout the school. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude for their encouragement and inspiration.
