Highlights of the year 2025-2026

IMT team at the Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

As the AGM of the IMT approaches, it is time to look back on an eventful year.

It feels like an age ago now, but how not to start with July's exceptional performance by Ireland at the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) in Australia, with Silver Medals for Owen Barron and Tianci Yan and a bronze medal for Vitalii Halushko. Angyang Li, Jack McAuliffe, and Ben Maguire all received Honourable Mentions. Only twice before (in 2005, 2019) has Ireland even returned with one Silver Medal. The team was led by Bernd Kreussler (Mary Immaculate), Anca Mustata (UCC) and Steve Buckley (Maynooth). Countless volunteer hours went into training the squad, year in year out. If you haven’t read Anca’s blog post, do!  Shiny medals delighted all involved.

After a brief break, it was back to Cork in August for the first training camp of the season.

Round 1 of the Irish Mathematical Olympiad saw almost 16K students participate in schools across Ireland in September.  We had an IMT stand (thanks Jean O’Brien!) at the annual conference of our friends, the Irish Maths Teachers Association. September continued busy with our annual IMT Awards Ceremony also taking place (thanks Myrto Manolaki). It is an occasion for our community to come together to celebrate past achievements and to gather enthusiasm for the year ahead. Matt Litman (UCD) gave a very nice public lecture.

The big news in September was on the fundraising side. Getting the ball rolling was a FitzWilliam post by the inimitable Sam Enright. In came commitments from Finn Murphy (Nebular) and Mark Cummins (Laminar Shock) and then the big one. Stripe came on board as our Principal Sponsor! Susquehanna renewed their sponsorship. Since then, Abbey Capital, the Society of Actuaries in Ireland, Emma Waldron Chen and the Irish Maths Teachers Asssociation have all signed up to support our work. Numerous smaller donations also make a difference. The Department of Education and Youth continues its tradition of supporting participation costs for EGMO and IMO.

From September to December, Junior Maths Enrichment ran as usual in UCC and UCD. Senior Enrichment classes, taught by volunteer academics, ran in Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Maynooth, Dublin and Cork.

January opened with the Stripe Young Scientists and Technology Exhibition. The IMT had great fun interacting with students, parents and teachers from around the country at our big stand at the inspirational event. It was a chance to spread the word about the good work of the Trust and that we were opening new Junior Maths Enrichment centres around the country!

January finished with the Irish Mathematical Olympiad, with the Fergus Gaines Cup won this year by Owen Barron with 88 points to Tianci Yan's 86, ahead of last year's winner Angyang Li. Big thanks to all the organisers and expert graders, a lengthy and demanding process. The Irish squad was selected, as were teams for the European Girls' Maths Olympiad and the new European Maths Olympiad.

Junior Maths Enrichment ran from January to April/May. In a major development (thank you Stripe funding!), new centres opened in Letterkenny, Limerick, Sligo, Galway, Maynooth and Waterford. Tralee and Thurles are lined up for September, with Leo Creedon (ATU Sligo) coordinating everything. It's hard to express how much of a difference this will make for kids across the country. SETU Waterford made a nice video to give you a flavour.

Squad training camps were held in UCD in February and March (organised  by Myrto Manolaki and Mark Flanagan) and incorporated fun games evenings in the fancy new Stripe HQ. The Irish team for the International Mathematical Olympiad was selected based on results from two team selection tests. Special thanks to Bernd Kreussler (Mary Immaculate) for leading the entire selection process from IrMO Round 1 problem proposals to TST grading and selection meetings.

April saw a strong performance by the Irish team of Rôisîn Spratt, Siobhán McGale, Charlotte Walmsley and Aifric Barron at the European Girls' Maths Olympiad in Bordeaux, led by Myrto Manolaki (UCD) and Maria Kiiko (TCD student) with Anca Mustata (UCC) supporting. Róisín from Sligo came home with a Bronze Medal. Congratulations to all. Two weeks later, a young team of Ben Maguire, Jack McAuliffe, Itamar Shoor, Nicole Cheng, Ben Liu and Yanchu Dai competed at the first European Maths Olympiad, with a view towards developing experience for next year. Andrew Smith (UCD) and Laura Cosgrave (Stripe!) led the team; they brought home a very creditable four Honourable Mentions, auguring well!

In early May, a youth squad of nine was selected for extra online training and a squad camp in Romania in June, with six to remain on and compete in the Junior Balkan Maths Olympiad, led by Jean O'Brien (Castleknock CC) and Evgenii Korkhov (TCD student).

Overall, it feels like an incredible year and the start of something amazing. We are privileged to work with hundreds of talented kids around Ireland and to help them to develop and flourish. Further progress is required building our volunteer base and on the fundraising side. Mathematics deserves more support in Ireland.

Coming full circle, the same wonder team of Owen, Tianci, Vitalii, Anyang, Jack and Ben will travel to the IMO in Shanghai this July, this time led by Steve Buckley (Maynooth), Tianyiwa Xie (Münster) and Mark Flanagan (UCD). This is the first time Ireland has sent the same team two years in a row (last year, unusually, featured no sixth year students). We wish them all the best!

– Neil Dobbs (UCD), Chair of the Irish Maths Trust