Three Cork students who got to know each other over the years through attending debates and quizzes yesterday celebrated being the State's top achievers in the Leaving Certificate, each scoring 9 A1s.
Peter Barrett (19) from Maryborough Hill, Douglas, Laura Hurley (18) from Wilton Avenue, Bishopstown, and Susan Spillane (18) from Kiltegan Lawn, Rochestown, were thrilled at their results.
"I was expecting high points because I knew I needed them but I didn't expect this. There were two results in particular, maths and accounting, that really shocked me," said Peter, a pupil at Presentation Brothers College who wants to study medicine at UCC.
All three got A1s in Irish, English, maths, French, German and physics while Peter also got A1s in chemistry, biology and accounting with Laura also getting A1s in chemistry, history and applied maths and Susan getting her other A1s in chemistry,biology and applied maths.
Mount Mercy student Laura Hurley, whose three older brothers Gavin, Raphael and Hugh each got eight A1s when they sat the Leaving Cert, had applied to study economics at Cambridge.
"I've applied and got my offer but I was very nervous about my offer because I had to get A1s in maths, applied maths and physics and the applied maths exam went very badly on the day so I didn't think I would get the A1. I'm delighted," she said.
Laura's father, Donal, is a maths lecturer in UCC and her mother, Anne, is a maths and German teacher at St Angela's in Cork city where among her students up to Junior Cert was Susan Spillane, who was also delighted with her results yesterday.
Susan, who plans to study pharmacy at UCC, was also surprised by her results particularly in applied maths, English and Irish as she had found all three sets of papers difficult.
"I thought it would have been possible for me to get 600 points if I really worked but I couldn't believe when I saw my results. I thought there must have been a mistake with the page. it seemed crazy with one A1 after another.
"I didn't really think I'd be able to do very well in Irish, English and applied maths because although I love Irish and English, I didn't feel the exams went that well and I find applied maths pretty hard so to get A1s in all nine subjects was a great surprise."
National concern about high levels of failure in Leaving Cert maths and science subjects was not evident in Cork yesterday with several school principals saying they were satisfied with results in maths and science subjects.
According to Cathal O'Donovan, principal of St Fachtna's De La Salle College in Skibbereen, where 48 students sat the Leaving Cert, pupils were very pleased with their results including in the maths and science subjects.
"I know what the national trend has been but that wouldn't be reflected in our results here - we would traditionally be strong across all the science subjects and maths and we were very pleased with how our students performed this year," said Mr O'Donovan.
