The real story - that of human anguish in the face of intolerable expectation - was in the body language. Fearfully and tentatively the students approached the secretary's office where the little brown envelopes containing the fateful news were neatly stacked in alphabetical order.
The first boy to arrive refused the principal's invitation to step inside, preferring to wait outside on the street for his classmates. Another made a hesitant sally towards the door, temporarily lost his nerve, and retreated to wait for his buddy. A third picked up the thin slip of yellow paper, squinted theatrically at it from arm's length, and finally summed up the courage to bring it to eye level.
Once they had dared to look, most of the Synge Street boys seemed happy enough with their results. William Ennis from Drimnagh let out a whoop of delight when he discovered he had got a C1 in German as part of his six honours and one pass. Later he admitted he probably had not done as well as he could have, and might end up repeating. That would not stop him going out and getting drunk to celebrate.
Alan Whelan, one of several students informing their parents of their results via mobile phone, was "very happy" with his five passes. He was one of the rare students for whom the results do not matter too much, since he has already started an apprenticeship in the engineering trade.
Fionan Williams from Rialto looked set to go to UCD to study medicine after getting four As and three Bs. Demonstrating that you can't please all of the people all of the time, he professed himself only "reasonably happy" with his outstanding performance, expressing some surprise that he had not done better in chemistry. If he did not make medicine, he would try radiography.
Another high flier, Anton Doyle from the South Circular Road, was confident that he was close to the 500 points needed to study architecture at UCD, after three A1s in maths, chemistry and biology.
Ian Sheridan from Charlement Street, with four honours - including a B in art - and three passes, thought he had "done very well considering I didn't prepare at all". He already has a job working in an industrial warehouse in Sandyford, but would ideally like to do an apprenticeship in carpentry.
Michael Cummins from Drimnagh was in the happy position of having gained the five passes he needed to do a PLC course in insurance at Inchicore Vocational School, while at the same time considering an offer to serve his electrician's apprenticeship.
Jonathan Kiernan from Crumlin was disappointed. His two Bs, two Cs and three Ds - four at honours and three at pass level - looked respectable enough, but he had at expected at least a B in his best subject, accounting, rather than the C3 he ended up with.
He wanted to study computers at Dublin City University but wondered whether he would have enough points now. However, at 17 he still had plenty of time to repeat.
The young man reluctantly squinting at his results from arm's length was Danny Gilligan from Crumlin. He passed six - three at honours level - but failed honours English, which would have been something of a tragedy for him if he had wanted to go on to third-level college.
But he was happy enough. He wants to be a fireman and is confident that he'll make it into the training stage of that much-admired profession.