An “act of bravado” by a college student has seen a cheque he received from St Vincent de Paul to secure his college place being cancelled.

The young man had told a specially convened conference of a St Vincent de Paul education committee in Kerry that he would lose his place in college if he did not get emergency funding.

The committee granted the unnamed man his request and issued a cheque understood to be for hundreds of euros, directly to him rather than the college.

However, a post later appeared on the young man’s Instagram account with a picture of him posing beside a pint and the cheque and captioned: “That’s me sorted for the Listowel Races!”

Several people complained to St Vincent de Paul and the cheque has now been cancelled.

“It was a bravado thing,” said Christy Lynch, the South West Regional President of the charity.

While he said he does not believe it was the man’s intention to spend the money on the race meeting, there had been reputational damage to St Vincent de Paul.

Mr Lynch defended the decision to issue the cheque, saying the charity did so in good faith. This was the first time the society had come across something like this and “and we will do everything in our power” to prevent a recurrence, Mr Lynch said.

The young man’s family was “very upset”, he told Radio Kerry, saying it was just an incident that got “out of hand”.

Speaking after the radio show, he said the society continued to work with the student and his place had been secured, even though the cheque had been cancelled.

Closely associated with the Catholic Church, St Vincent de Paul is the largest voluntary charitable organisation in the country.