It has been announced that DCU will host the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL) in 2017.
The news comes as Ireland won the bid to host its very first science olympiad next summer.
IOL is one of the newest in a group of olympiads related to the sciences. The olympiad challenges students to compete with one another, both as an individual and a team representing their nation.
The first ever IOL was held in Bulgaria in 2003 and has grown in popularity since then, with thousands of second-level students competing for a place on their national team each year.
Irish students must score in the top 100 students nationwide to make it to the final, held in late February/early March each year, in either DCU or TCD.
The All-Ireland Linguistics Olympiad (AILO) is run by The ADAPT Centre in DCU and TCD each year. Students take the regional rounds in their own schools in the hope of reaching the final.
This year’s final was held in the Exam Hall in TCD and saw 100 students sit a two-hour paper packed with puzzles testing their linguistic skills and eye for detail.
The top four students will secure a place on the national team and will set off to Mysore, India to compete in the International Final this July. They will have to battle individual and team rounds in order to place.
IOL was held in Bulgaria last July, and saw Irish team member, Luke Gardiner, of Gonzaga College, Dublin, take home a bronze medal in the individual competition.
Aine Monk
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