Donegal’s Cully Coders triumph at All-Ireland Lego League Masterpiece Challenge

A group of young Lego enthusiasts from Donegal have proved why they deserved their wild card entry to the All-Ireland final in the FIRST Lego League Masterpiece Challenge by taking home two trophies.

The Cully Coders earned their Wild Card place in the final by scoring more points than all of the other 149 teams in the Robot Game section across 11 Regional Tournaments. The group of five national school children, from three different Donegal schools, have been preparing for the competition since October at Lego Club meetings in Cully Hall, Laghey.

The team is made up of Zoe McElhinney and Georgia Green from Robertson National School, Ballintra;  Glebe National School Donegal Town’s Rebecca McElhinney (12) and Sienna Deane (11) and Andrew Morrow (12), who is a pupil at Inver National School. Their Adult Volunteer Mentors are Stephen McElhinney, Scott McElhinney, Brendon Green, Ian Deane and David Morrow.

FIRST is an acronym for ‘For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology’. This science and technology challenge is aimed at 11 to 16-year-olds. Teams are required to build a robot from Lego to tackle a series of missions and create new ways to communicate art across the globe using technology. 

The All Ireland Final of the ‘FIRST’ Lego League Masterpiece Challenge was held in the Crowne Plaza Hotel. With registration for the competition starting at 7.15am, the Cully Coders travelled to Dublin the night before with their adult mentors and family members to support them. 

Up bright and early and rearing to go, the Cully Coders were on the practice tables before the competition began, making sure that their Lego robot could complete their missions to perfection.

It was going to be a challenge for this young team. Many of their competitors were second-level students, competing in the tournament as part of their Transition Year. Even though the Cully Coders were being closely watched by 23 other teams and their supporters, they kept their cool and were laser-focused on completing their missions. 

One judge described the team’s approach as ‘ice cool’. They completed the Robot Game section with an impressive highest score of 470 points, beating their previous record. This score gained them a place in the Knockout Competition, where once again they beat all of the other teams with an impressive score of 480. This meant that the Cully Coders left the Tournament with two trophies and two All-Ireland record scores in the Robot Games and Knockout Competition.

At the end of a long and exciting day, the Cully Coders and their families made their way back to Donegal – a group of delighted children and very proud parents.