Congratulations to our four St Mary’s University College students Micheal McCarville, Maeve Kelly, Charlie Smyth and Cormac McGettigan who are recipients of a Gaelic Players Enhanced Bursary. This is the first year that inter-county players studying at St Mary’s have received the new enhanced bursary from the Gaelic Players Association.

St Mary’s students who are inter-county players can avail of this support through the players’ body and the College Applications – are now open and potential applicants are urged to apply early.

To mark the inaugural partnership, current inter-county players and St Mary’s students along with GPA Education representative and Dublin senior footballer Brian Howard gathered at the new campus library at the College.

Speaking to mark the awarding of the enhanced GPA bursaries, College Principal Prof. Peter Finn highlighted the importance of financial support for our students, “Students who perform at the highest level in Gaelic games are amateur sports men and sports women, so the GPA bursaries provide much needed financial support to enable them, to mix education and their pursuit of excellence on the pitch.”

Speaking on behalf of the GPA, CEO Tom Parsons said,” Without the support of our educational partners we could not deliver on our key strategic pillar of Player Development.  We don’t want our members’ sole focus to be on what they are doing on the field of play.  We want to ensure they have the environment in which they can flourish in other aspects of their lives including in education.  On behalf of players, I want to thank St. Mary’s University College for supporting us in supporting our members with that goal in mind.”

The enhanced bursary is available for students enrolling on the Full-Time MSc PE and Sport for Young People offered at St Mary’s.