Deportations have badly affected Tunde Omoniyi's ability to study, writes Alison Healy.

Not many Leaving Cert candidates were grateful to be sitting down to their first exam yesterday morning but Olukunle (Kunle) Elukanlo and Tunde Omoniyi are not like many other students.

When their classmates were worrying about points and CAO choices, the two Nigerians were wondering if they would be deported before they could sit their exams in Palmerstown Community School in Dublin.

Kunle hit the headlines when his classmates fought, and won, a campaign to have him returned to Dublin after he was deported in March.

Meanwhile, Tunde's lawyers were in the High Court on Tuesday over his threatened deportation. He had been due to meet Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) officials the day before the exams started to discuss his deportation.

However, after this was publicised, the date was postponed and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has now agreed that Tunde will not be deported pending the outcome of a legal challenge. The application will be heard on July 4th.

His fears over deportation had badly affected his study, Tunde told The Irish Times yesterday after he had completed his first English paper.

"It wasn't that bad," he said of the first exam. "I have my fingers crossed. I tried my best anyway."

He was up until after 2am yesterday and he rose again at 6am to cram in some last minute study.

"But I'm not really feeling that well at all since I got that letter [from the GNIB]. I can't eat properly. I can't sleep properly. It has really affected me."

He said the Government would be "wasting my life" if he was sent back to Nigeria. Tunde said his twin was killed in part of a traditional sacrifice and he would have been killed had a family friend not taken him to Ireland more than three years ago.

He said some classmates were talking about mounting a campaign to have his deportation abandoned, once the exams were over. "We definitely will," said his friend Michael O'Sullivan. "We all did our part in the Kunle campaign."

Kunle was keeping a low profile yesterday and he declined to stop as he left the school in a friend's car . "Sorry, we are not going to be saying anything," his friend, Neil Burke, said. "Kunle's doing okay but he doesn't need a lot of people around him at this time."

Classmate Brendan Reid said he felt sorry for Kunle. "I just think it's too much pressure on him, no offence to the media. Everything is stressing him out."

Janine Dowdall said it was very difficult for Tunde as he had not enough time to study for the exams. "I was talking to him on the phone at 2 o'clock last night, trying to help him with the Strictly Ballroom question."

Palmerstown Community School may have found itself under the media spotlight in recent months with the deportation cases, but the tables were turned yesterday when some students found themselves judging the media in their English exam.

"I really hope the examiner doesn't like Big Brother," said Leaving Cert student Alison Quigley. "I've just written a two-page rant on talentless celebrities and reality TV."