Higher-level students were sasta go maith with yesterday's paper but many ordinary-level students were trina cheile.
Ms Treasa Ni Chonaola, a teacher in St Michael's College, Ballsbridge, Dublin, said higherlevel students were "delighted with the paper as astute predictions became word". The paper was very straightforward this year. The prose questions were manageable and allowed for great scope in answering.
Ms Maire Ni Laoire, ASTI subject convenor and vice-chairwoman of Comhar na Muinteoiri Gaeilge, said the higher-level paper was very satisfactory and correctly pitched.
Question one, the prescribed prose, which offered students a choice between the tragedy of Clann Uisnigh or a sympathetic look at the work of the Simon Community, gave students plenty of scope while the language in the unprescribed prose was clear and unambiguous. There was a choice within every section of the literary texts and a very wide choice within the optional short story and novel sections, said Ms Ni Laoire, who teaches in Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney Co Cork.
She welcomed the strict gender equity and use of contemporary poets within the poetry section. There were no difficulties with the Stair na Gaeilge section, she said. There was a wide choice and these questions also complemented the choices in the literature sections. "Students would have been busy writing but it was a grand paper," she said.
At ordinary level, the prescribed prose section was "fairly satisfactory", said Ms Ni Laoire. However the unprescribed prose was unusual. "If you lacked confidence in Irish, you might have been thrown by this section," she added. However students should not worry as this section carries fewer marks. "They shouldn't get unduly upset but it was unusual."
Ms Ni Chaonaola said there was a "very narrow one-track approach to the prose questions at ordinary level. Each question was asked through the medium of a quotation. Students who didn't understand the quote or the role of the quote would have been guessing. They had no opportunity to relate the story with confidence."
Two Irish teachers - Ms Mary McAree and Ms Mine Mhic Coil, from St Michael's, Loreto, Navan, Co Meath, rang Exam Times to complain about the ordinary-level paper. Ms McAree said it was "totally unfair and unsuited to the level of students". She wondered if the questions on the danta roghnacha had been mixed up with the higher-level questions. "Overall, it's the worst paper I have seen in the past five years," she said.
Mr John MacGabhann, vice-president of the TUI, said he was very concerned about the ordinary-level Leaving Cert Irish paper. " I found the paper itself something of a evil fiction because it strikes me as a paper wholly inappropriate in content and style for those sitting the exam. There seems to be some imperative other than the imperative of validating students' work."