A four-teacher school in Co Laois, who beat all the odds to qualify for a World Robotics competition, will travel to the US this weekend to compete against schools from around the world.
Over €100,000 was raised by the local community in ten days, to ensure the 11 students from Rosenallis National School were able to travel to the competition.
In February, the school won the national Vex Robotics competition, having only established a team the previous year.
"A year and a half ago, one of our teachers, Aaron Mackessy, came to me with the idea to set up a robotics team in the school," explained principal Rory Walsh.
"He'd been approached by our local STEM officer in the county council, Seanie Morris, and he was very enthusiastic.
"He said he was happy to roll it out and I said to go ahead and it really has grown legs," he added.
"We started with quite a small team, no huge expectations, the kids were just having fun and enjoying themselves and learning how to program and code and so on."
Although the school has just 74 pupils, Rosenallis NS managed to send two teams to the national finals this year and, incredibly, scooped both first and fourth place.
"This year, with two teams, we won the Laois county competition and the kids were dead certain, as soon as they won that, that we were going to go to the All-Irelands and represent the school well," Mr Walsh said.
"So we did that against all the odds, they won the all Ireland. They beat the big schools and the big cities."
The team were welcomed home under garda escort and there was a huge homecoming party.
For the parents and teachers, they had to figure out how they were going to raise the money to send the winning team to St Louis in Missouri, for the world championships
"We met a few days after that and we made a fundraising plan, more in hope than expectation that we'd manage it," Mr Walsh said.
"Within ten days, the fundraising target of €100,000 had been reached.
Watch: Community raises €100,000 for school to attend World Robotics competition
Principal Walsh has paid tribute to the students and the wider community for their support.
"I can't speak highly enough of the kids and their teacher and of the whole community here in Rosenallis, Laois and even beyond.
"Not just financial generosity of people, but the offers of support, the good wishes, the sponsorship of gear for the kids, buses, you name it. People can't do enough for the kids."
Excitement builds ahead of VEX Robotics World Championship
The VEX Robotics World Championship brings together teams from over 50 countries, each designing, building and programming robots to compete in a series of head-to-head matches.
"When we go to America, we'll be representing Ireland, Laois and Rosenallis at the world robotics championships," explained student Ollie McEvoy.
"There will be a whole lot of other countries and it's broken down into little leagues. We'll have to compete against them and try to come out on top."
The children, who range in ages from 9 to 12, say they are very grateful for the support of their teachers, parents and the wider community.
"It's very generous of them and I'm so happy that they've done this for us," said sixth class student Aisling Guinan.
Student Ciara Dunphy said: "The whole village, all of Laois is so excited for us, the community was really magnificent."
The students fly out this weekend and the competition gets underway on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a primary school near the Donegal-Tyrone border is also set to represent Ireland in Missouri, with a robot named after that state's first governor - Alexander McNair (1775–1826) - whose ancestors came from their parish.
Dromore NS, a DEIS school in Killygordan, Co Donegal, qualified for the VEX World Championships after winning the national competition in Cork.
As the USA marks 250 years of independence, school Principal Mary McGranaghan told RTÉ News that there is great excitement in the border school before they travel this weekend.
She said the McNair family came from a humble background and praised the children's achievements in reaching the world championships.
Ms McGranaghan said the community has rallied behind the school, with strong support from past pupils, parents, past pupils and extended families.
She reflected on changes in education since she began teaching, moving from chalk and blackboards to students competing on an international stage in robotics.
"It’s phenomenal," she said. "The children are enjoying it and there’s great collaboration and teamwork, which is very important. The whole community is full of energy and goodness behind those children.
Dromore National School has an enrolment of 230 pupils. There are eight children on the team that will travel to Missouri this weekend.
Pupil Rossa Harron Gillespie said the team has worked on the project for more than 200 hours including sessions during Christmas holidays.
Another pupil, Conor O’Brien, said he was surprised to learn that a prominent figure such as Alexander McNair had connections to their parish, adding that it was "really cool" to be travelling to that same area.
Meanwhile, Grace Onofrei said she was nervous and excited to compete against countries from around the world in engineering.
The annual VEX Robotics World Championships is organised by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation.
Students from Gaelscoil an Ráithín in Limerick are also taking part in the VEX Robotics World Championship.
The team, of five boys and five girls accompanied by parents and three teachers, is travelling to the event.
Their robotics journey began at school, where they learned basic coding and engineering concepts before they progressed to the VEX competition.
Roles were assigned across the group, including project managers, builders, coders and drivers, ensuring each student played a part in developing the robot.
After evaluating a number of designs, the team selected a compact "180-degree mech" model, which allowed for fast movement and efficient stacking of game elements.
The robot was built and refined over several months, with students documenting each stage and addressing a range of engineering challenges along the way.
Early issues with the claw mechanism and size restrictions required redesigns, while mechanical setbacks such as broken components and lifting difficulties were resolved through testing and modification.
The team's efforts paid off at the Mid-West Regional competition, where they won the Excellence Award, Teamwork Champion and Robot Skills Champion titles.
They later secured the Design Award at the National Finals in Cork, earning qualification for the world championships in St Louis, Missouri.
