Meet Cathal Sweeney, 16, who turned a glow-in-the-dark ball into €40,000
Sixteen-year-old Cathal Sweeney developed a glow-in-the-dark hurling ball to solve visibility issues during winter training. His student enterprise, GLO Hurling, successfully commercialized the product, generating €40,000 in sales and winning a national student competition.
Why it matters
It highlights the potential for student-led innovation to address niche market needs and achieve commercial success through practical problem-solving.
For Cathal Sweeney, a frustrating problem on the hurling pitch became the starting point for an innovative student business. A self-described hurling enthusiast, Sweeney found that training on dark winter evenings could be difficult when there was not enough light to see the sliotar clearly. Rather than accepting the problem, he developed a glow-in-the-dark ball designed to help players continue practising when daylight fades. The idea eventually became GLO Hurling and its flagship product, the Glo Ball. In 2026, GLO Hurling won the Senior Category at the Student Enterprise Programme National Finals. Sweeney, a student at Mungret Community College in Limerick, developed the product as part of his Student Enterprise project.
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