18 December 2023

Jerry Kiernan Foundation invites athlete applications for 2024

The Jerry Kiernan Foundation was established in 2021 to support elite athletes in their athletic development. The Foundation aims to honour Jerry’s unique legacy as an educator, coach and mentor to students and athletes over 35 years until his untimely death in 2021. After two successful years with over €60,000 granted to athletes The Foundation is now inviting applications from athletes for funding support in 2024.

The Foundation conducted its first grant programme in 2022, when €30,000 was shared between 22 successful applicants.

In 2023 the Foundation awarded another €30,000 to 12 successful athletes including world finalist Jack Raftery, National U23 long jump record holder Reece Ademola and world championship qualifier Louise Shanahan.

In addition to its award programme, the Foundation has supported up and coming athletes by sponsoring The Junior Men’s and Women’s mile and Young Irish Athlete of the Meet awards at the Morton Games in July. More recently, it also partnered with the  Insight centre for Data Analytics in UCD in running a second very successful Science of Running Symposium in September.

2024 Application Process

A transparent application procedure is available at www.jerrykiernanfoundation.org. Athletes will be assessed based on their previous achievements and longer-term potential, taking into account other sources of income or support available to them. The assessment process will be conducted by an independent panel. 

The application process will remain open until January 26th 2024. Unfortunately applications received after this date will not be eligible. 

The Foundation expects to announce its supported athletes for 2024 in the first quarter of 2024.

Supporting the Foundation

Anybody interested in assisting directly can make a donation through the website or directly via email to info@jerrykiernanfoundation.org.  The Foundation is also seeking to partner with businesses and individuals on a structured basis to fund its longer term objectives.

Launching the Application Process, the Foundation’s chairman Murt Coleman commented:

“We are thrilled to be announcing another round of funding applications. To date we have done a lot to help Irish athlete’s and can only hope to further our contribution during what is a very exciting time for the sport.”