EXAM DIARY:I KNOW I've come across as pretty confident so far, but I have to tell you that the spectre of Irish shook my resolve this weekend, writes Laura Brady.

I took myself to Dublin for a spot of shoe shopping on Saturday - could I silence the guthanna in my head by hiding in Brown Thomas? Surely that nice man in the tall hat would stop Peig at the door. What use has she for Crème de la Mer?

Well I didn't find the shoes I was looking for and I didn't overcome my demons either, so I went home and got out the books.

There's not much you can really study for Irish Paper I, so I tried a new tack - children's cartoons on TG4. I've got a soft spot for one called Avatar, one boy's lonely struggle against the evil forces of a lost age. It got my Irish juices flowing and put me in the mood for a fight.

After a troubled night's sleep I woke up early and went online, determined to get the shoes that would kick Irish to the kerb.

I found them on eBay; a divine pair of Christian Louboutim. At $900 (€575) they were practically giving them away. Yes, it's a ridiculous luxury, but a girl's gotta do . . . ...

Of course they didn't arrive on time for Irish Paper I, but somewhere in cyberspace they're mine, and that was comfort enough.

I was dressed to kill the Irish exam, however, in high black heels and tailored pants. I got a few odd looks from my fellow examinees, but this is how I roll. Dress for battle if you want to win. Well you know what? Things couldn't have gone better. There was even an essay on how shopping's the new religion. I was right on message.

Today (Irish Paper II) will be tough. Last year I got an A2 in Irish and that cannot happen again.

I think I must be one of the few people in Ireland who still studies Peig, but there's a good reason - she has slipped so far off the radar nowadays that the questions are increasingly unimaginative, and therefore predictable. I'm usually asked to describe her character, so tonight I'll be learning off my customised Peig vocab list, which is still taped to the inside of my wardrobe door from last year. Stoic, miserable, anguished and so forth.

As for the poets, I was rather hoping that Cathal Ó Searcaigh would come up, but I guess that's unlikely now.

I have noticed how the examiners like to steer well clear of topical subjects and anything remotely controversial.

I noticed that the civics paper yesterday for our Junior Certs did not even include a reference to Lisbon. So much for topicality.

That said, it is probably not a bad idea to keep us Leaving Certs out of the news. Goodness knows we have enough to do.

Most of my class were in the exam hall from 9.30am until 5.20pm yesterday - with just a 90-minute break. We have enough to be getting on with.