THE plight of a poor family in a Macroom house during the Famine and the experiences recorded in a diary of a Famine ship were the subjects of documents that accompanied the ordinary and higher level Junior Cert history papers yesterday.
Mr Fergal Fitzmaurice, a history teacher in Colaiste Dhulaigh Dublin, said most history teachers would have expected the Famine to appear on the paper and students would have been well prepared for these questions.
The choice offered by the short answer questions on both papers was good, he added, and most of the course was covered, so students should have been able to find 10 questions they could answer.
Overall, both papers were fair and the documents and pictures were clear. However, he said question 4, which deals with people in history and is common to both papers, would have caused some difficulties to many students. Students were asked to write about a druid in Celtic times, the lord of a medieval castle or a printer during the Renaissance in part A of question 4. Part B offered a choice of a factory worker in mid 19th century England a retired farmer who was born about 1915 or a Black and Tan in Ireland during the War of Independence or an important woman leader of government in the 20th century.
Mr Fitzmaurice said that this last topic was very interesting, abut doubted that students would have been prepared for that type of question.
Mr John O'Sullivan, ASTI subject representative, agreed that the choice of people in history was quite restrictive, particularly in part B. "Students put a huge effort in to the suggested themes and a good paper should reward this effort," he said.
Question 5 on the higher level paper, which dealt dealt with the Reformation, was also quite difficult, he said.
According to Mr Fitzmaurice, the final part of this question, which asked students to describe the effects of the Reformation on Europe, may have scared some students with its apparent breadth. Most classes would have concentrated on one or two countries.
However, the difficulties caused by questions 4 and 5 on the higher level paper were balanced by the accessibility of the other questions, Mr O'Sullivan said.