A picture of Russell Crowe in full gladiator garb gave a modern twist to the Junior Cert classical studies paper.

"Russell Crowe graced the paper, accompanied by an article about the film Gladiator taken from The Irish Times, so maybe the classics aren't quite dead yet," said Michael Barry, a teacher in St Patrick's College, Cork. "Both the higher and ordinary-level papers were well received, but they are very time consuming and energy sapping." Brendan Leahy, of Belvedere College, Dublin, said his students were happy with the Latin papers. "There was one unseen passage that was challenging, but, in general, higher-level was very fair and the ordinary-level students were really pleased."