Cardinal Health employees outside the plant last August as details emerged that it planned to cease operations in Tullamore
Search
26 Mar 2026
Search
26 Mar 2026
Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.
Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist.
If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter .
Support our mission and join our community now.
To continue reading this article, you can subscribe for as little as €0.50 per week which will also give you access to all of our premium content and archived articles!
Alternatively, you can pay €0.50 per article, capped at €1 per day.
Thank you for supporting Ireland's best local journalism!
Colaiste Choilm, Tullamore students with their robot
A group of students from a Tullamore school have qualified for the world finals of a major robotics competition and will travel to the United States in May.
STUDENTS from Colaiste Choilm are fundraising for their trip to the VEX Robotics World Championship in Texas, United States.
The World Championship will take place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas and a gofundme page has been opened to help pay for the boys' participation.
The World Championship brings together the top VEX IQ Robotics Competition, VEX V5 Robotics Competition, and VEX U Robotics Competition teams from around the globe to celebrate their accomplishments and participate in the 2024-2025 games to be crowned champions.
VEX Robotics challenges students to design, build, and programme robots to compete against other teams, fostering innovation, teamwork, and problem-solving.
This year, Coláiste Choilm Tullamore has qualified to represent Ireland and is the first team from the Midlands to compete at the V5 level. Their robot is named Phoenix.
Joe Molloy, teacher at Coláiste Choilm said: “The school has come a long, long way since Vex was introduced into our school four years ago. Now America is going to blow their minds, as it is at yet another level again completely.”
The event in Dallas is the largest robotics competition in the world and on their gofundme page (log onto gofundme.com and search for Help Coláiste Choilm attend Vex Robotics World Championships) the students say that by investing in their team, donors are investing in the next generation of engineers, creators, and leaders: “Every contribution brings us one step closer to success.”
To see the fundraising page, log onto:
The team were the Robot Skills Champions and also received the Excellence Award at their local area competition which them for the Ireland National Championships where they placed first in the Design Award and qualified for the World Championships.
Said Mr Molloy: “The Vex V5 competition is a comprehensive STEM learning system with customisable robotics kits, coding software, and curriculum for hands-on engineering education. Our students have excelled in engineering, design, manufacturing, programming, project management, teamwork and problem solving, resulting in their success. These students are the future of Ireland’s STEM landscape and have a fantastic opportunity to showcase their skills on an International stage.
“This is a huge opportunity for our students in Colaiste Choilm to experience STEM on a global level as 800 teams from across the globe compete. This learning experience will also contribute to their personal development and they will have lifelong memories from the trip.”
The team members are Ruairi Dunne, Ahmed Mukassabi, Albert Jolly, Joshin Joy, Lawrence Lynam, Ian Norris, Robert Burns and Martin Conroy.
Subscribe or register today to discover more from DonegalLive.ie
Buy the e-paper of the Donegal Democrat, Donegal People's Press, Donegal Post and Inish Times here for instant access to Donegal's premier news titles.
Keep up with the latest news from Donegal with our daily newsletter featuring the most important stories of the day delivered to your inbox every evening at 5pm.
This publication supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice of the Press Council. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, Lo-call 1800 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie.
