{"id":386331,"date":"2026-04-07T12:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386331\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:43:09","slug":"limerick-ty-student-overwhelmed-with-local-support-on-his-new-hurling-business-start-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/386331\/","title":{"rendered":"Limerick TY student overwhelmed with local support on his new hurling business start up"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is 16-year-old\u00a0entrepeneur Cathal Sweeney from Limerick<\/a> who has created a successful business and is selling his product nationwide.<\/p>\n

Cathal from Raheen, Mungret, in Limerick is a TY student at\u00a0Mungret Community College and he plays GAA for his club, Mungret St. Pauls.<\/p>\n

Cathal has a huge passion for hurling and has been playing since he was five years old.<\/p>\n

He is the proud business owner of Glo Hurling which he created near the end of last year.<\/p>\n

“I decided to develop a GAA wall ball called the glo ball, which glows in the dark. I came up with this idea because there have been countless winter evenings when I wanted to go outside and puck a ball for 10 or 15 minutes, but I couldn\u2019t \u2014 it was pitch dark, and the lights outside were very limited.<\/p>\n

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“For nearly half the year, it gets dark from 6pm, which makes training difficult”.<\/p>\n

The ball is phosphorescent, meaning it absorbs light and gradually emits it over time, creating a glowing effect. To enhance this, Cathal paired it with a UV light, which is eight times stronger than a standard torch and gives the Glo Ball a long-lasting glow.<\/p>\n

He has now sold around ten orders across each county in Ireland so far.<\/p>\n

“I came up with the idea in October and then I spent two months trying to make samples and make the actual product work.\u00a0Then I posted about it online and opened pre-orders in November,” Cathal said.<\/p>\n

“I looked the idea up online to see if there was anything and I couldn’t find a ball like the one I created.”<\/p>\n

Cathal manufactured the glow in the dark balls abroad and set up a website for his business using Shopify.<\/p>\n

“Setting up the website itself was straightforward but getting samples and actual balls made was very difficult”.<\/p>\n

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Cathal said the process was difficult because he spent weeks getting samples over and back and wasn’t happy with a lot of the samples.<\/p>\n

He said he waited until he found a ball he was fully happy with.<\/p>\n

“It’s a standard hurling speed ball with phosphorus powder inside.\u00a0The powder reacts with light and I pair it with a UV light,\u00a0which is much stronger and more efficient for charging glow-in-the-dark items.\u00a0So if you shine the UV light on the ball, then it glows.<\/p>\n

“My parents have supported me, but I came up with the idea and I do everything myself.\u00a0Like packaging the orders, making the videos, stuff like that”.<\/p>\n

Cathal said that since starting the business near the end of last year, he has gotten a lot of orders.<\/p>\n

“I have four colours.\u00a0So I have pink, yellow, blue and white.\u00a0And for each pink glow ball I sell, I donate one euro to Breast Cancer Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ ALSO:\u00a0Limerick schoolboys write inclusive book on Traveller identity – Limerick Live<\/a><\/p>\n

“I picked Breast Cancer Ireland because there was these two women and they came into my school and did a talk about breast cancer and the dangers and the amount of people it affects.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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“So every one euro spent for the pink balls are going towards that charity”.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a load of support from people across Ireland supporting me.\u00a0It’s great like I didn’t think when I first started\u00a0that I would be able to take it this far.<\/p>\n

“I’ve probably sold at least 10 orders to each county”.<\/p>\n

Cathal said that each Glo Hurling ball is\u00a0\u20ac7.80 and with the UV light it’s \u20ac11.50.<\/p>\n

Three balls, which is what 90% of people order, is \u20ac23.<\/p>\n

Hurling is a passion of Cathal’s and he has been playing since he was five years old in Mungret, Limerick.<\/p>\n

His hope for the future of his business is to have his glow balls in every club in the country.<\/p>\n

“It removes the need for smaller clubs to buy really expensive floodlights.\u00a0I want them to be in shops across Ireland and get recognised nationally”.<\/p>\n

Cathal’s business\u00a0came first in the senior category of the Limerick student enterprise competition and he is preparing to represent Limerick in the All Ireland competition in May.<\/p>\n

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Cathal said that he has received a lot of supportive and positive feedback from people in Limerick specifically.<\/p>\n

“When people hear I’m from Limerick, I end up getting a load of orders from Limerick.\u00a0I’d say 10% of my total orders are just from people around my area that I know”.<\/p>\n

Cathal has thanked his business teachers, Ms. Clancy and Ms. Fox, who have supported him throughout his business journey.<\/p>\n

To visit Cathal’s website, you can do so via the link here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is 16-year-old\u00a0entrepeneur Cathal Sweeney from Limerick who has created a successful business and is selling his product…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,1396,1894,1895],"class_list":{"0":"post-386331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-limerick","12":"tag-mungret","13":"tag-raheen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}