A Monaghan student who recently received her gold Gaisce award says her late mother gave her the drive to succeed.
Aoife McElroy was one of the students from Cavan and Monaghan who were presented with the coveted award in Áras an Uachtaráin last week;
The other local medallists were Sophie Bell from the Royal School Cavan and Israel Matiki of Loughan House.
Aoife attended Ballybay Community School and now studies primary teaching in Marino College.
Her mother Anita sadly passed away when Aoife was 17 and, speaking to the Wider View, she says the award is dedicated to her memory.
"I worked towards these awards for the past six years. I started my bronze award at 15, my silver at 17, and now finally I've achieved my goal. My motivation for these awards was to keep the memory of my mother, Anita McElroy, alive. She passed away to cancer in 2020 when she was 44 and I was 17. That was my motivation. I made a promise to her that I would do it all in her memory. It's been incredibly rewarding".
