Sport has scored highly in the Nissan search for young ambassadors representing the next generation of Irish role models.
Dublin footballer Shane Carthy and surfer Gearoid McDaid finished among the top seven vote-getters from a public poll and automatically qualified to become ambassadors.
Sophie Spence was selected as one of the four judges choices, having impressed them generally and with her goals of the future.
Over 81,000 votes were cast nationally and each of the three will join eight others from fields of music, business and food in being given full use of a 162 registered Nissan Car for the next 12 months.
“I am delighted with the support that I received and I want to thank everyone who voted for me, said Carthy.
“The GAA isn’t a professional game but you need to train like a professional and my new Nissan Juke will make it easier for me to complete more individual training sessions, arrive earlier for training to do more rehab and prep for training to avoid injury and to bring me further in my game.”
“These young people are the future of Irish business, sport and music and share Nissan’s commitment to excellence and innovation. Nissan is delighted to support their ambition to succeed and to make 2016 the year that they never look back,” said James McCarthy CEO of Nissan Ireland.
“We designed Nissan Generation Next to support Ireland’s leaders of tomorrow on their road to success. The response to this year’s programme has been incredible. We received over 1,000 entries and 81,000 votes were cast for those shortlisted as finalists, which is a terrific endorsement of the programme,” he added.
The full list of Nissan Generation Next ambassadors for 2016 is as follows:
Alison Stroh, Greystones, Wicklow – Dr. Coy’s Health Foods
Food entrepreneur Alison is passionate about positive eating and a healthy lifestyle. She co-founded her business in 2014 with her brother Aaron, approaching renowned oncologist and biologist Dr. Johannes Coy to create a delicious range of chocolate products with certified health benefits.
Edel Browne (19) Athenry, Galway – Founder of Free Feet Medical
At just 19, Edel has built a truly remarkable company which uses laser assistive technology to reduce the freezing of a person’s gait – a common and debilitating symptom of Parkinson’s disease which affects 10 million people globally. Edel’s many awards include being named as one of 200 ‘Founders of the Future’.
Sophie Spence (29), Lime Street, Dublin – Irish Women’s Rugby Player
Sophie is an integral part of Ireland’s most successful women’s rugby team ever. She has helped Ireland win two 6 Nations tournaments and last year was nominated for World Rugby player of the year. As well as playing rugby, Sophie plans to develop outstanding rugby camps across the country to give young girls the opportunity to learn and develop their skills in the sport.
Sarah O’Connor (30), Sundayswell, Cork – The Cool Food Company
Sarah is one half of The Cool Food company, a health food business that puts the humble bean at the heart of delicious products. Its signature brand ‘Cool Beans’ provides a great tasting, healthy convenient meal for people with busy lives and Sarah is on track to fulfilling her ambition of making Cool Beans an internationally recognised food.
Shane Carthy (24), Swords, Dublin – Dublin County Footballer
Dublin senior county footballer Shane Carthy has battled adversity to become a club All-Ireland winning footballer and an integral part of the Dublin Senior Football team. He left his family in New York and turned down a US soccer scholarship to pursue his childhood dream of winning an All-Ireland title with Dublin.
Fiona Gryson (23), Skryne, Tara, Meath – Multi-Award Winning Harpist
Professional harpist Fiona has set her sights on playing the harp as part of an orchestra for a Disney film and on becoming an ambassador for the instrument that is the national symbol of Ireland. She has already won a number of prestigious competitions and wants to put the harp at the centre of music education.
Ryan Scott (26) and Sam O’Bryne (24), Howth, Dublin – DropChef.com
Sam and Ryan founded DropChef.com to make cooking dinner easier by delivering all the ingredients to cook a healthy dinner, along with an easy to follow recipe, straight to your door. Each ingredient is pre-measured to save customers time, money and food waste. For every meal delivered they donate one to charity.
Dermot Sheedy (26), Darragh, Clare – Professional Drummer and Bodhran Player
Dermot is a professional percussionist and drummer with Irish band, Hermitage Green. The band has already had huge national success with two top 10 albums, ‘Live at Whelans’ and ‘Save Your Soul’ and they’ve travelled the world with their music. Dermot has also played with artists such as Donal Lunny, The Irish Harp Orchestra and Celtic Legends.
Gearoid McDaid (19), Hazelwood, Sligo – Surfer
At just 16, Gearoid became the best surfer in Ireland by winning the Men’s National Championship. Just three years on and Ireland’s surfing prodigy is fast earning recognition as one of Europe’s best young talents. Gearoid is on the brink of qualifying for the World Championship Tour, the highest level in the sport and dreams of representing Ireland on the world stage.
Stephen Cluskey (32) Swords, Dublin – Advocate for Irish People With Disabilities
As a wheelchair user, Stephen understands the difficulties faced by disabled people, particularly when it comes to the issue of travel. Through his social enterprise mobilitymojo.ie, and his advocacy work, Stephen is helping to create an Ireland where it is as easy for a disabled person to travel, as it is for anyone else.
Shane Ryan (26) Limerick City – Founder of FEED
Shane started FEED in 2015 with zero experience, zero contacts and zero money, but through his hard work, determination and natural flair for business he has managed to create a successful brand delivering healthy lunch boxes to office workers. FEED has social responsibility built-in and donates one meal to a child in the developing world for every FEED lunch box sold.
