Young Burren Leader Awards
The Young Burren Leader Bursary was set up to commemorate and honour the Trust’s co-founder and patron, Ann O’Connor Dunford who sadly passed away in January 2015. Ann had a great vision for and belief in the capabilities and potential of the Burren’s youth; acknowledging and encouraging their role as the future custodians of this unique and special landscape. This award was launched in 2015.
The Young Burren Leader Bursary is a prestigious award and is designed to encourage youth engagement with the Burren landscape, through exploring themes of environment, heritage & conservation. The winner(s) of the bursary will receive monetary support (up to the sum of €500) to develop an innovative project which will create awareness, be informative, showcase the Burren’s unique potential, and most importantly highlight the wonderful skills and imagination of the individual/group themselves. The project can be anything you want!
The awardee(s) will have the full support and encouragement of Burrenbeo Trust in the following ways:
- Their project will be profiled across a range of Burrenbeo events, activities and within promotional materials;
- They will be presented with the opportunity to represent the Trust at events;
- Their project and progress will be highlighted and showcased to the wider Burren public through local and national media;
This is a wonderful opportunity for any young creative person(s), to think about new, fun and exciting ways to engage with the Burren’s unique landscape, heritage, conservation and community.
What should my project look like?
The project and its direction is completely up to the imagination of the applicant. Engagement with the Burren landscape can cover a multitude of themes and have numerous agendas. It could be engagement for:
- Increasing awareness about environmental/conservation concerns within the Burren;
- Educating youth about the environment in which we live;
- Highlighting the things that are important to young people within the Burren;
- Advocating a need for youth lead initiatives within the landscape;
- Showcasing the potential of the Burren for young groups;
- Promoting the use of the Burren outdoors to enhance health and wellbeing amongst the young;
- Connecting young people across the Burren landscape and working on a regional strategy for climate change;
- Anything you feel really.
Eligibility & Conditions
- It can an individual, group, class or school that apply;
- Candidates must be from, or have attended school in, the Burren (north Co. Clare and south Co. Galway);
- Candidates must be at least the age of 8 and under the age of 21;
- To apply please send in or email a short proposal of maximum 500 with your name, contact details and school;
- The bursary is up to the individual to spend as they wish;
- There can be more than one awardee at any one time.
There are two awards each year, the deadline is the 1st December and 1st June every year.
Past Awardees
2015 – Megan McLoughlin and Chloe Messor
2018 – Áitbheo Secondary Scholarships for Gort Community School and Seamount College
2019 – Áitbheo Seconday Scholarships for Gort Community School and Seamount College