Philip Nolan on the Leaving Cert: ‘I had an astonishing array of spare pens and pencils to ward off disaster’

Prof Philip Nolan was head of the National Public Health Emergency Team’s modelling group. He is director general of Science Foundation Ireland, and was previously president of Maynooth University. He sat his Leaving Cert at Clonkeen College, Deansgrange, in Dublin in 1984.

What is your most vivid Leaving Cert memory?

The extraordinary mounting anxiety sitting in that tiny desk a few moments before the first examination, looking at the pink back of English paper one, with dry mouth and pounding heart, my mind completely blank, and an astonishing array of spare pens and pencils to ward off disaster. And my first pint, which I had with a few classmates, when the exams were all over.

Who was your most influential teacher and why?

Bryan Dobson: ‘Retirement could be a terrible shock to the system – or not, who knows!’

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I spent my maternity leave in a chemo chair. Then I got a letter telling me to go back to work

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Trump’s week in court: Gasps and a pick-up in pace as Hope Hicks is called

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The Croke Park effect: ‘It was one of the very few times I cried during the opposition anthem’

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I had many, but four stand out. Jim Byrne taught me English and Martin Murphy was my physics teacher in Clonkeen College, Deansgrange. They were inspirational, and they also taught me public speaking and debating, which was transformative, helping a very shy, awkward and introverted adolescent to become a somewhat more outgoing and confident young adult.

I had moved to Clonkeen College from St Vincent’s CBS in Glasnevin at 14 years of age, and in St Vincent’s was really fortunate to have been taught by two equally inspirational people: Robert Eager (English) and Paul Cooke (science). These four teachers gave me a lifelong passion for science and the arts, and I’m really grateful to them

What was your favourite subject?

Biology.

And your most difficult subject?

French. I approached languages like a scientist, analytically, a system of grammatical rules, rather than relaxing into the learning of the language.

Can you recall what grades you got?

We had very broad grade bands back in the last century: A, B, C and D were the passing grades, with an A awarded for over 85 per cent, I think. I got 4 A grades and 2 B grades.

What did you go on to do after secondary school?

I went to study medicine at UCD.

What would you change about the Leaving Cert?

A lot has changed over the last 40 years, with some very important improvements and reforms. I’d like to see this continue and accelerate. A wider variety of assessment types, including more project work, could encourage deep learning and be more appropriate for different learning styles. I’d like to see the assessment spread more evenly over the last year or 18 months in school rather than the very intense terminal assessment we have now at the very end of the last year of school.

What advice would you give to your Leaving Cert self?

Relax and live a full life. There are many paths to the same destination, and there is more to life than study.