Vision Ireland Gerard Byrne Bursary honours the contributions of Gerard Byrne, who was a lifelong advocate for education. Gerard sadly passed away in 2017 having worked with Vision Ireland in a management capacity since 2003.
The Gerard Byrne Bursary consists of an annual grant for undergraduate students who are blind or vision impaired with a certified diagnosis from a registered eye health care professional and are studying on a full-time basis at a recognised educational institution in the Republic of Ireland.
This programme aims to support students in third level to gain comprehensive education, and in turn, supporting the important transition to meaningful employment.
Applications for the 2023/24 Gerard Byrne Bursary are now open until July 21st 2023.
For more information on the Bursary, email [email protected].
Megan Callaghan was awarded the bursary in 2021
My name is Megan Callaghan and I was lucky enough to be one of the two winners of the 2021 Vision Ireland Gerard Byrne Bursary.
I am studying to be a Home Economics and Gaeilge teacher in the fabulous, St. Angela’s College, Sligo. I am now in third year of my course and loving it!
Education in general with a visual impairment is difficult and every day presents a new challenge, VI  only make up roughly 1.8% of all students in Ireland. People are under the illusion that sitting near the board will cure all our problems whereas this is absolutely not the case. However, it is thanks to the Vision Ireland that I did receive the supports I needed in school and college and I could not have gotten this far without them.
To anyone remotely considering applying for this bursary I would say go for it, you have to be in it to win it. Thanks to the bursary I have had the pleasure of meeting our fantastic Minister for Further and Higher Education, Mr. Simon Harris and was interviewed and appeared on Nuacht TG4. It was utterly surreal to be interviewed on my farm, talking about how I have overcome challenges in education and otherwise with regards to my visual impairment, ar fad trĂ mo theanga nĂĄisiĂșnta agus dĂșchais, Gaeilge, bhĂ mĂ© an-bhrĂłdĂșil.