The calm after the Leaving Cert storm

BETWEEN the rain and the opportunity to check online, Clare’s secondary schools were noticeably quieter than previous years, as the long wait for the Leaving Certificate results came to an end on Wednesday.

However emotions still ran high for those who braved the bad weather to collect their results in person at school gates across the county.

Friends came together after the summer break to congratulate or console and the rain meant that, for many, the inside of their parents’ car became the place where furious calculations of points were made.
More than 1,300 Clare pupils received their results this week either online or in person. Among them was West Clare student Mark Glynn who achieved eight A1s.

The 18-year-old collected his results at Kilrush Community School on Wednesday morning, where principal Rock Kirwan told The ’Champion, “It came as a great surprise to him, but it was not so much of a surprise to his teachers. What Mark has achieved is rare.”
“We are pleased for all of our pupils, they are a fine group of youngsters who all worked very hard and we are very happy with the results,” Mr Kirwan added.

At Coláiste Muire in Ennis, friends gathered inside the school out of the rain to check over their results. Seventeen-year-old Ennis pupil Doireann Hennessy was among those celebrating after achieving seven A1s.
“I am absolutely delighted, I didn’t expect that,” she said.

Doireann is hoping to study medicine in Galway having already done her HPAT admissions test.

Ashling Downes from Kilmaley was one of the Coláiste pupils to do honours maths, planning to study economics and maths at UL. She put her number skills to the test, checking her points not just once, but five times.
“I’m really happy with the result I got, honours maths was a really tough paper but I’m happy. I was just shocked with my results; you don’t really know how you’ve done until you add them up and I didn’t think they’d add up as much. I added five times to make sure,” she smiled.

Megan Keane, also from Coláiste Muire, was another who was thrilled with her results. “I’m very happy, I am in shock really. I’m hoping to do speech and language therapy. I’ve applied for it in Dublin, Cork and Galway and with the points I’ve got, I hopefully will get what I want.”

Aisling McInerney’s results came as a pleasant surprise. “I wasn’t expecting to do as well, I was no where near what I got when I did the mocks,” said the Clarecastle 18-year-old.
“I want to do primary teaching in Mary I, so I’m hoping I’ve done enough. I did higher level Irish and that was changed this year so 40% of the marks were for the oral and I thought that went well.”

Jenny Costello from Quin was another who was more than happy with their Leaving Cert results. “I did a bit of studying and I want to do science at UCD, I hope the points don’t go up too much now,” she said.

Principal Jean Pound told The ’Champion, “They all did brilliant, even better than normal and they are usually very good. They have all been outstanding.”

Outside Rice College good friends Amy Logue, Hazel Mullarkey, Clara Ball, Sarah Woodford and Fae Nugent were also celebrating.
There were plenty of hugs with all five of them delighted with what they had got. Sarah from Corofin was “happy out”.

Fae (17), who plans to study fashion in Limerick, added, “I did well, I’m really happy. I thought I would do worse. I’ve been onto my family and they’re all really happy.”

Micheál Ó Hogain, from the Gaelcholaiste, said he is confident that his results will be enough to secure him a place on an industrial design course at UL.
It wasn’t just teenagers who got their results this week, with 43 adults who sat their exams also learning their fate. The students studied under the Back To Education Initiative (BTEI), which is part of the Adult and Community Education Service of Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, formerly Clare VEC.

Leaving Cert classes took place at three centres in the county, with the majority of students undertaking their study at the Adult Education Centre in Ennis. Students in Shannon and Kilrush had the opportunity to study for maths, English and history.
As well as the Leaving Certificate results, a total of 75 students in Clare sat the Leaving Certificate Applied, including a number who studied at the Clare Youth Service in Ennis.

“All of our LCA students were really happy with their results,” said Jean Tierney of CYS.

The CYS on Carmody Street hosted their traditional exam breakfast on Wednesday morning, with pupils from schools across the town and county getting involved.
“The breakfast started at 8.30am and there were around 50 or 60 students there. After they had got their results, many of the students came back to chill out, with the youth space open till the evening. We were delighted that one woman who heard about the breakfast decided to come along with a plate of muffins for the students, which was lovely.”

John Cleary, principal of St Caimin’s in Shannon, said the pupils who had arrived up to that point had been quite pleased.
“I’ve just been engaging with students and they’re thrilled. We’re delighted for them. There’s been a lot of waiting.”

He said he hadn’t gone through the results in great detail at that stage but felt a mistake on the higher level maths paper had been dealt with adequately.
“I haven’t studied them to any extent yet but certainly I could safely say that the mistake that was made in the higher-level maths paper hasn’t affected anyone here. There was a question that was unsolvable and a lot of them came out wondering if they’d missed the point or whatever. Certainly the State Examinations Commission have come along and fairly addressed that.”