Kerry Ladies Footballer Aoife Dillane has been awarded an Elite Sports Scholarship by Mary Immaculate College (MIC) in recognition of her sporting prowess. Aoife is one of five MIC students to be awarded Elite scholarships, alongside Irish hockey player Anna Horan, Irish athlete Thomas Devaney, Limerick hurler Cian Scully and Mayo Ladies Footballer Sinead Walsh.
MIC’s Elite Sports Scholarship scheme is open to those who have excelled in their chosen sports and this year, the number of scholarships awarded increased from two to five for the first time. The scholarships are tiered, with one Gold recipient, two Silver and two Bronze, with Aoife scooping a Silver scholarship. The scholarships are offered in memory of former MIC staff members and sporting stalwarts, the late Noreen Lynch and Leonard Enright.
Congratulating the Scholarship awardees on their achievement wasProfessor Niamh Hourigan, Vice-President Academic Affairs at MIC, who said: “This is the fourth year of this scholarship and the calibre of our sporting ambassadors continues to be outstanding. This year’s talented awardees have proven their sporting excellence at international, national and inter-county level. They have also committed to achieving academic success here at MIC and balancing the two commitments is no easy task so we are delighted to offer our support to such worthy recipients. We anticipate that these recipients will achieve a lot on and off the pitch and we will be delighted to watch them grow as scholars and as sportspeople.”
Aoife, who is from Tralee, is a second year B Ed student at MIC and was awarded a Silver Sports Scholarship. Aoife plays at club level with Austin Stacks in Kerry, where she won an Intermediate Kerry County Championship in 2017. She has represented her county in Ladies Football since U14 grade and was called up to the Senior squad in 2021. She has won a Division 2 National League medal in 2022 and Division 1 medal in 2023, as well as playing in the Senior Ladies All Ireland Football finals in 2022 and 2023, where Kerry was the runner-up. Aoife was an integral part of MIC’s Giles Cup winning team of 2022 and is this year's captain of MIC's O'Connor Cup squad.
Aoife Dillane
