Scoil Mhuire Glenties named finalists in national Our World Awards

Fifth class pupils from Scoil Mhuire, Glenties have been named a finalist in the 2025 Our World Awards. The school will join 14 other national finalists from across Ireland at a ceremony to be held at Dublin Castle on Friday, May 30.

Scoil Mhuire is one of just 15 schools in Ireland to be in the running for one of nine prestigious Our World Awards comprising the Global Goals, Irish Aid Programme, Rising Star, Creative Star, STEM, School and Community Impact, Global Citizenship Education, an Iontráil Ghaeilge is Fearr and Outstanding School Engagement Awards, as well as the coveted School of the Year Award. 

Pupils captured the spirit of global citizenship with a beautifully creative project for the Our World Irish Aid Awards, combining local tradition, environmental awareness, and international learning.

Using the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as their guide, the pupils explored global challenges like poverty, climate action, and life on land and in water. What made their project stand out was the way they cleverly connected global issues with their own local environment and heritage.

Inspired by the Yao people of Mozambique, who created a large elephant sculpture using old materials, the Glenties pupils set out to make their own sculpture — with a Donegal twist. Instead of an elephant, they designed a hare, a creature native to Ireland, and constructed it using chicken wire, kitchen roll, and PVA glue. They then covered the sculpture in traditional Donegal tweed, donated by Magee of Donegal Town.

“We used this tweed because we are trying to reduce, reuse and recycle at school,” the pupils explained, “and it is made here in Donegal. Making tweed is a tradition we are proud of and want to see lasting into the future.”

This theme of sustainability and heritage continued with a second creation: a model of an Atlantic Salmon, made from old newspaper and masking tape, then wrapped in wool — a nod to the long-standing knitting and woolcraft tradition in the area, where generations of women produced handmade items to support their families.

In addition to their hands-on creativity, the pupils carried out detailed research on life in Mozambique and Laos, deepening their understanding of how people across the globe face challenges and work toward solutions — often with limited resources but rich cultural knowledge.

Congratulating Scoil Mhuire on making it to the national final, Minister of State for International Development and Diaspora, Neale Richmond TD said:

“I am really looking forward to meeting the pupils from Scoil Mhuire and their teacher at the national final on May 30th.  I know that there is a great sense of excitement around the event in Dublin Castle.

“I am also looking forward to personally thanking our primary school teachers for their continued commitment, not just to participating in the Our World Awards, but also for nurturing an ethos of global citizenship amongst our young people. It is important that as global citizens we all play an individual and collective part in making the world a better place.

“Each of the projects submitted by the 15 finalists demonstrate an impressive level of insight and understanding of complex global issues that have a devastating impact on the most vulnerable in our world.” 

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Now in their 20th year, the Our World Awards are the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s flagship programme with primary schools which, over its lifetime, has seen thousands of young people become inspired to engage with global issues and take action for a fairer, more sustainable world.