125 students from across Ireland and Northern Ireland have been awarded scholarships to fund their college education from the All Ireland Scholarship Programme which is funded by the Irish multimillionaire JP McManus.
The students, who are among the highest achievers in the country, are each given €6,750 or £5,500 a year to pay towards their college and other fees.
100 students from the Republic of Ireland and 25 from the North are selected each year, by a Board of Trustees, and are based Leaving Certificate results.
The students must also be exempt from paying the Leaving certificate exam fee.
Over 1,100 students have been granted scholarships since the programme was started in 2008.
€30m has been granted to the fund for a ten year period with €18.5m having been paid to date.
The students, who have begun their college courses, were presented with their scholarships at a ceremony in Limerick this afternoon.
Many said they helped ease the financial burden they would face in meeting the expenses of college, and allows them to concentrate on their studies, and avoid debt on qualification.
Otherwise many would have to get a job to fund their educational programmes.
The guest speaker at this year’s ceremony was multi award winning jockey A P McCoy, who urged students to seize the opportunities the scholarship presented to them, and to work hard at perusing their passions and dreams.
