Irish language game sweeps the boards at entrepreneurial final
AN Irish language board game devised by three Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne students as part of a Transition Year mini business competition has won the Údarás na Gaeltachta Clár na gComhlachtaí 2020 National Final.
Liam Ó hÓgáin, Finn Daibhéis and Patrick Saunders, who are all native Irish speakers, started work last September on their Rí na bhFocal game which promises “a challenge for all ages” and is designed to test players’ knowledge while encouraging them to speak Irish. Through the winter they conducted market research among local primary schools and sourced funding from Irish language organisations as they developed the concept which went on to be selected as the best entry from more than 750 Transition Year students in Gaeltacht regions in Cork, Galway, Donegal, Kerry, Mayo, Meath and Waterford.
The Pobalscoil team will now represent Ireland at the JA Europe Company of the Year Competition 2020 which was due to be held in Portugal but as a result of the COVID-19 travel restrictions will now be held online in July.
The game will sell for €30 and Finn Daibhéis told The Kerryman this week that they already have orders waiting to be filled when they receive the finished product in the coming weeks from a print company they sourced in China.
Displaying a touch of the entrepreneurial spirit that won the competition for the Pobalscoil students he added: “There’s a good market for board games at the moment when so many people are at home because of the coronavirus lockdown.”.
In the Clár na gComhlachtaí competition, run by Údarás na Gaeltachta and Junior Achievement
Ireland (JAI), students create, operate and manage their own business as they move from the idea generation stage, to finance, production, marketing and sales. Local business volunteers, executives from Údarás na Gaeltachta and JAI mentored the students alongside their teachers – and in the case of the Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne students this was business studies teacher Trish Uí h-Éanacháin.