No matter what the Irish summer throws at us, there will always be one constant. The second week of August will forever conjure up images of nervous, pale faces either breaking into delirious grins or sobs of shock or joy.
The Leaving Cert results can conjure up a sense of déjà vu like no other, and for this year's crop of 60,000 students, today is one day they will remember for the rest of their lives.
ireland.comheaded to St Louis High School in Rathmines early this morning where school principle Ms Eilish Humphreys was as excited as the growing number of students assembling in the front hall. She said her charges had performed well above average overall and was especially pleased with their 12 As in Art. One student scored five A1s overall out of seven subjects.
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Kristine Cunningham (R) checks out
Aoife Fortune's results outside St Louis High School this morning. |
Clichéd as it is, you could feel the tension in the air as the girls waited for those white envelopes that would bring weeks of waiting to an end and for many would determine their plans for the next few years. When Ms Humphreys finally announced that the results were in, she was followed, almost reluctantly, by the waiting hopefuls. The brief silence was broken by the sound of envelopes being ripped open to cries of 'oh my god!' and 'I don't believe it'.
Russian national Masha Samodurova, now living in Tallaght, is heading off to UCD to study engineering thanks to her 570 points total. Masha started her Irish education in second year and achieved A1s in Higher Maths, Higher Applied Maths and Higher Chemistry, and a B2 in Higher English.
An extremely shell-shocked Sarah O'Brien hopes the CAO will bring her even more good news next week after she got 565 points thanks to three A1s and two A2s in her results, including an A1 in Higher Chemistry. She has applied to study medicine in Trinity or UCD, and the next week should give her enough time to let her achievement sink in.
Aoife Fortune from Milltown scored top marks in the Applied Leaving Cert and will start a course in Complimentary Health Studies in Dun Laoghaire next month. Sarah Joyce from Crumlin hopes to have a career in journalism having scored the necessary marks to study in Ballyfermot College.
Kristine Cunningham meanwhile is going to repeat next year, feeling that at 17 she needs a little more time to decide what she wants to do for the future. But she said she was delighted with her results, especially with passing business studies and geography. Tammy Atkinson from Rathfarnham was thrilled at her five passes which will allow her to study Childcare in Liberties College.
Overall Ms Humphreys said the maths results did not strike her as being particularly high, a reflection of the problems students faced in the exam last June, but she was particularly delighted that all of the school's non-national students had passed English. She added that the "middle-of-the-road students" did very well overall and should be extremely pleased with their results.
No doubt the scenes in Rathmines this morning will be duplicated throughout the State, only to be repeated next week when the first round offers start arriving in the post.