Ten past students of Carrick-on-Suir school awarded further education bursaries

Pictured above: The ten past students of ERSS, Carrick-on-Suir pictured after receiving an Eddie Gough Bursary. Back row: ERSS Vice Principal Linda Barry, ERSS Board of Management Chairman Tom Larkin, Eddie Gough, bursary recipients Darragh Dunne, Callum Smith and Killian Power, Year Head Teacher Leona Mulcahy and ERSS Principal Majella Gleeson. Front: Bursary recipients Josue Miguel Cruz Barrientos, Cameron Littlewood, Bobby Coady, Cormac Hennessy, Evan Flynn and Coady Phelan. Picture Anne Marie Magorrian.

Ten past students of Carrick-on-Suir's Edmund Rice Secondary School, who are pursuing apprenticeships or STEM related college courses, were presented with a €1,000 Eddie Gough Bursary at the school on Friday, October 17.

Mr Gough, a successful businessman and past pupil of the school, presented each of the apprentices and students, with their bursary.

The bursary recipients completed their education the the former CBS school, popularly known in Carrick as The Monastery, in the past academic year.

The first €500 of the bursary is awarded at the start of their apprenticeship or course and the remaining €500 will be paid after the recipients complete their first year exams.

Mr Gough is CEO of POWERSUB, the company he founded that provides integrated modular substations for power distribution and EV rapid charging.

He launched the Eddie Gough Bursary in March and will sponsor the scheme for five years.

This translates to a €50,000 investment in the further education of past students of his alma mater.

ERSS Principal Majella Gleeson thanked Mr Gough for offering this generous bursary in support of past students for STEM related courses and apprenticeships.

She said it was a massive incentive for the recipients and wished them all success.

Mr Gough congratulated the bursary recipients, praised them for the initiative they have shown and wished them well in their studies and training.

He spoke of how ERSS had been good to him and was a great school to promote apprenticeships.

He recalled he was a bit on the ‘wild side’ at school but he was given a great chance thanks to the wonderful support of the teachers, especially Noel Casey and the late Liam Hogan, who was Vice Principal.

He told the bursary recipients that his decision to take an apprenticeship with MSD in Ballydine on leaving school, shaped his career.

It led him to international travel, and ultimately helped him establish POWERSUB. Mr Gough emphasised the numerous benefits of apprenticeships and the opportunities for apprenticeships through the FETAC system. He highlighted career prospects, hands-on learning and financial independence.

“You are never out of work with a trade and you can travel the world” he said.

Mr Gough highlighted how AI will eventually dissipate office jobs and many other roles, as automation is accelerating.

But he pointed out that more job opportunities in different sectors will emerge as renewable energy, wind farms, hydropower, data centres, robotics and advances in technology, will not be going away.

And jobs involving complex manual skills, specialised knowledge and personal interaction are less at risk of being replaced by AI.

“Go in wholeheartedly and give 100%,” he said, adding that an engineering degree offered many different career paths.
ERSS Board of Management Chairman Tom Larkin along with Year Head Teacher Ms Leona Mulcahy wished the past students every success.

Mr Larkin said the school’s current senior cycle students could also achieve one of these bursaries with hard work and dedication.

The 2026 Eddie Gough Bursary has now been launched for the school's current 6th years who can submit their application forms in April/May next year.

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